Alex Rider Returns Once Again
by Magic halfblood
Summary: Usual Alex rider goes to Brecon Beacons. Only this time there are some enemies and there are some friends. Will Alex even manage to answer any questions before he is sucked back into the life of espionage.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

(repeat for all chapters)

* * *

1

Sergeants PoV:

Arghhhhhhh the sergeant screamed out in frustration looking at the file infront of me. Those good for nothing mi6 people think that they can just put people in and take them out whenever they feel like it. And they don't even bother to explain themselves.  
First they send a teenager a year ago and then they take away fox and now they want to send him their top agent for some "protection" and "training". They ask him-no they _command_ him, to put their agent in the top unit but hey don't tell the  
sergeant anything about him! The sergeant looked at the file again.

Name: **** *****

Gender: male

Age: classified

DoB: classified

Status: classified.

Reason for staying: protection and training.

Personal information: classified

Family: classified

Other information: classified.

What Kind of person has that much classified information? how is his age classified?

There is a knock on the door.

"Enter"

K-unit enter. And stand at attention.

"At ease soldiers"

They relax slightly.

"Mi6 are sending in somebody for some training and protection and have asked me to put them in your unit. He shall be arriving in 10 minutes you will have the rest of this day to relax and will only be doing a couple of excersizes for the coming week  
as usual so you have time to get to know the agent"

They nod their heads and are dismissed. The heads of mi6 told the sergeant to not tell the unit anything about the agent. Only that he is coming for training and protection

3 PoV

A black Mercedes car stopped at breacon beacons and anyone looking inside will only see a driver. No one else. No one would notice the person hiding in the shadows with a blank expression. And if they do look inside and see him they will not be able to  
tell that he has every escape route planned out and has analysed every single possible attack. Subconsciously of course.

Alex rider PoV

Alex was in a bad mood. He was going to kill Blunt. Just because there was some stupid scorpia threat against him and against the pleasures they plucked him out of America and shipped him of to hell on earth.

The car stopped and He got outside of the car. He nodded to the driver merely out of thanks and walked to the sergeants cabin. Out of habit he stuck to the shadows even though there is not many people there. It's dinner time. God no! He remembered the  
mush that they called food. That's it next time he saw blunt he will make sure he pays for sending him here.

Alex knocks on the door and heres a bark

"Enter"

He enters and out of habit stand at attention.

"Sir"

The look on the sergeants face is pure shock . He allows himself a smirk on the inside. bet he didn't expect cub to be the " top agent".

"Cub!" He states in disbelieve.

"Yes sir"

" you're the top agent that mi6 was talking about?"

"Yes sir"

"How is that even possible, your are just 18 years old?"

This time He allowed a little smile to show. Guess mi6 didn't tell them his age. The anger towards mi6 is still raw so he lets something slip.

"Yes sir I am the top agent but I don't think mi6 told you my real age"

The sergeant stared at Alex in what can only be describe as disbelief.

"How old are you cub?" He asked cautiously.

"I am not allowed to tell you that sir"

"Cub I need your real age now."

This is just too funny.

"Well sir the truth is I'm fifteen years old"

The sergeants stares at him with a look of absolute shock with his mouth hanging open. He opens and closes it like a fish and if he wasn't the sergeant Alex would have bursted out laughing.

"Cub?" He manages to say quietly.

"Yes sir"

"THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR PRACTICAL JOKES. TELL ME YOUR AGE RIGHT NOW!"

Alex flinched at the sound.

"Sir I am telling you the truth. I am fifteen. I turned fifteen about two months ago"

He just stares at Alex like He's grown two heads.

Finally when the silence is unbearable

"Um sir can you tell me which unit I will be staying with so I can go and unpack"

He recovers from his shock.

"Yes cub. You will be staying with k unit"

Alex groans inwardly. Just his luck, to get stuck with the same unit.

He turned around to leave.

"Cub"

"Yes sir"

"Good luck"

"Thanks sir"

You could tell that the sergeant was still trying to get over the age but Alex was shocked by the sincerity in his voice.

Alex opened the door and make his way to k unit hut.

Before I knock I need to pick which mask I'm going to wear. The blank expression is a no no since that invites curiosity. I can put the scared mask but then I will look weak and that's not what I want. I could put on surprise. No. What about yes that  
one. The expression were I walk in with a smile on my face like there is nothing that will be a good cover. Stop them asking difficult questions. And make them think that I am happy or content or whatever. But it's the hardest mask to pull off. Not  
when they look into my eyes and see something else. That is the only thing I can't cover. The look of my eyes. Not when I have been through so much and- no Alex stop this. You promised yourself from the day you entered the pleasures house that you  
were going to put up a wall made of solid steel in your mind to block anything that has happened to you. You will live like you have been through everything else and even though the nightmares are uncontrollable, during the day you can stop yourself  
from thinking about it.

I change my facial expression and knock.

There are some footsteps and the door opens to reveal eagle.

He stares at me for like 3 seconds and then opens his mouth.

"Cub?"

Here goes nothing.

"That's right. Miss me?" I go for a winning smile

His mouth hangs open and he is pushed out of the door by wolf and snake.

"Cub what the hell are you doing here?" Ah wolf always straight to the point.

"As much as I would like to stand here and explain to you the reason for my presence I would love if you invited me to come inside"

The stare at me for a couple of seconds before my words register and they move aside. I walk in carrying my bag and see an empty bed in the corner of the room. I walk over and put my bag down. Subconsciously noting every single possible exit for every  
single possible attack situation. Sometimes what scorpia taught me saves me in so many life or death situations but such times as this it is just annoying. But as they say old habits die hard.

"You weren't this sarcastic last time?" Said eagle. Curiosity mingling in his voice.

"Yh well I wasn't given much room to speak."

They all shifted incomfortable as they realise the accusation in my voice.

"You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"

"Didn't the sergeant tell you. I'm staying here for an indefinite time for protection and training"

snake looks at me.

"Protection from who?

"Can't say"

Realisation suddenly hit wolf

"You mean you were sent here by mi6?"

My wall shakes at the mention of those Devils.

"Yes" I say. My voice quieter than I expected.

Wolf PoV:

At the mention of mi6 cub's face closes of completely. If I was surprised by the joy in him before it was nothing compared to the surprise of how his faced changed so suddenly to a blank empty expression.

" what are you doing with mi6?"

He looks at me and I see his calculating eyes. As if he is working out the answer.

"I don't know. It's complicated"

I stare at him and he looks down. After a minute of silence he looks up and his face returns to the joyful expression before.

"Well guys I know it's been a long time since I last saw you all and as much as I would like to catch up with you, I haven't had Any food for ages and I was wondering if anybody knew if the time for dinner was up"

Eagle answers this time" there is about 10 minutes till the end of dinner"

"Thanks"

Cub gets up and walks out.

We stare after him. Snake is the first to recover.

"Well that was shocking."

Eagle:"anybody else see his complete change when snake mentioned mi6?"

We nod. That was strange.

I don't know why but suddenly I feel angry. What the hell is wrong with this kid? He comes about a year ago with no reason trains for 10 days kicks me out of a plane then leaves. Then a year later he comes back completely different. My head is starting  
to hurt.

I suddenly remembered that time when I saw cub in the alps. But that was nothing? Right?

"Guys do you remember my mission to the Alps about a year ago?"

They nod

"Well I saw cub there and he was snow boarding down the mountain on an ironing board and then got hit by a train"

"What the hell? How comes you didn't tell us this?" Eagle asked in shock.

"I signed the osa"

Snake then speaks up

"How comes your telling us this now?"

"It seems important"

We are startled by a knock on the door.

I walk over and open the door, surprised to see the sergeant there.

"K unit. I have come to check that cub is here and has settled in"

"Yes sir he has"

"May I speak to him?" It's a command not a question.

" he has gone to have dinner sir"

He stares at me like it's my fault he went and then nods his head.

He then gives me a file.

" this is Cubs file. As you are his unit you have a right to see it"

He then walks away.

I turn back to my unit and we open the file.

If we were shocked before then it was nothing compared to now.

"What kind of person and practically everything but his gender classified? I mean even his name and age are classified"

I turn to eagle " well guess we are going to have to find out our selves"

Eagle grins evilly and snake smirks.

"Hey guys what you looking at?"

We all jump.

"What the hell cub?" Eagle practically screams. " has anyone told you that it is not nice to sneak up on people."

"I wasn't sneaking up. I came in normally" cub replies indignantly, pointing to the door.

"Cub you made absolutely no sound. I think that is called sneaking up." Snake reasoned.

"Just because you were all too busy staring at a piece of paper doesn't mean that is my fault"

We all stared at him. He never talked back last time he was here.

"Listen here cub." I took on the role of a leader. "The rules haven't changed since the last time you were here. You never talk back to your unit leader" I speak to him in my most threatening tone and I see eagle and snake flinch but cub doesn't even  
react to it. No one has ever remained unaffected under my threatening tone.

"I'll try and remember that. Anyway what you looking at?" his tone is normal but there is some mock in it. I let it go. Right now i am a tiny bit curious about his file.

"Your file" eagle replies excitedly.

There it is again Cubs face closes of and there is no expression.

"What does it say?" His voice sounds normal but there is some worry in it.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing" snake throws his hands in air out of frustration.

Cubs face relaxes and he goes back to normal.

"What can I say. I am a mysterious person"

I look at him and see him smirking. He must be enjoying this. That makes me angry.

"Listen cub we are a unit and we must all know about each other. So why don't you start by telling us your name and age?"

He flinched this time. "I am-"

He then freezes in shock as his eyes catch somethings behind me. I turn around to see what it is but there is nothing there. I turn back to ask him what's wrong but he is not there"

"What the hell?" I yell. "That little rascal, I'm gonna kill him."

He is no where to be found. The door is still shut but the window is open. How the hell did he get out of the window without making any noise.

"He is like a ninja"

I roll my eyes at eagles childishness though I can't help but agree.

I look at the time and it's time for bed.

"Come on guys, lights out, cub will come back when he does"

We get ready for bed and go to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

2  
Alex PoV:  
Phew that was a close one. What kind of SAS men are they if they fall for the simplest of tricks. I wait until they all are asleep then get back inside. I lie on my bed and try not to sleep. When I sleep the nightmares come, and that's not what I want.  
I hardly get any sleep. 1 hour most and I am forced to live though flashbacks and nightmares. There really is no point of sleeping.  
I try to keep my self awake but I can't do it for long and I sink into the darkness of my nightmares.  
It's the same one as yesterday.  
I am walking through a long corridor and there are rooms on either side. The doors are all locked and I feel the urge to hide. I start running down the corridor trying to open the doors but none of them open. I hear footsteps behind me. I run faster.  
I find a door that is unlocked.  
I open it and dash inside only to find jacks dead body infront of me. I scream. "JACK."  
Suddenly I hear evil laughter being me. I turn around to see non other than julius grief. He grabs me and tries me to a pole. then I hear it. The sound of a whip. I look to a side and see a every single person that I have defeated. Grinning maliciously.  
I know what is going on. Sayle is first. He whips me. Then grief. Then sarov. Then cray. Then rothman. The major yu. Then McCain. Then Razim.  
I'm screaming , screaming for them to stop. I can't do anything about it.

Snake PoV:  
I wake up shivering and wonder why. Then I remember the window was left open. I walk over to close it and as I'm walking back I hear some thrashing and heavy breathing.  
I look to see non other than cub sweating in his bed. Thrashing like a wild animal. Tangled up in his sheets. I walk over to him. I realise he is having a nightmare.  
Suddenly he screams. "Jack"  
Wolf and eagle jump up to the sound and I motion for them to come over.  
As they make their way cub starts screaming silently. As if he put himself on mute. But he still is screaming. He looks like he is pain. He screams and screams and then he starts crying. Tears rolling down. He starts begging.  
"Stop! Please stop."  
My strong sas heart breaks at the pleading and hopelessness in his voice. I look to wolf and eagle and they feel the same thing. We make a silent agreement and wake him up.  
But as soon as wolf lays a hand on cub, he springs into action. He punches wolf in the stomach with so much force that he is winded. I then make my way to cub but he jumps of the bed and swings his legs knocking me over. Eagle then tries to stop him but  
cub pushes him against the wall and makes attempts to strangle.  
"CUB" I scream  
Alex PoV:  
Suddenly I see three people make their leaning over me and I don't know who they are. Probably more enemies. I Spring into action and two on the floor and one in my grasp.  
Suddenly I hear it.  
"CUB"  
I freeze. I'm confused. Then I realise where I am. I look infront of me and see eagle, with a fearful look in his eyes. Snake and wolf are both on the floor.  
I let go quickly. I start panicking. What have I done. I can't believe I did that. What is wrong with me.  
I make accidental eye contact with snake and wolf and see confusion and curiosity in them.  
I can't do this.  
I run out of the hut and into the night time air.

3rd PoV :  
Snake wolf and eagle look at each other wondering what the hell happened  
Eagle is the first one to speak.  
"There is something seriously wrong with cub"  
We nod. Then we see the time. 5:30am.  
"Looks like we have to get ready for breakfast" wolf speaks.  
They get up and get and one by one take a shower. Then they made their way to the canteen.  
There they saw cub sitting down on Kunit's table having breakfast. Face closed. Devoid of any emotion.  
He seems oblivious to all the staring. Well what do you expect. He looks like a child. 17. And his presence is an insult to the soldiers.  
3rd from Kunit's pov  
We get breakfast and make our way to sit down. Nobody says anything. The tension is so high you could cut it with a blunt knife.  
Suddenly one brave or stupid man makes his way over to cub and taps him on the soldier. Before anyone could blink, cub had the man in a dangerous position with the mans head in Cubs hand. One move and the man died.  
"What the hell?"  
Cub looks at the man and let's go straight away.  
"Sorry. Reflexes"  
"What sort of reflexes are that kid?"  
"I'm not a kid"  
Cub says that sentence with a threatening to it and if it wasn't for his "reflexes" the man would have laughed.  
"Whatever"  
The man walks back to his table seemingly forgotten about what he was going to say.  
Everybody in the canteen stares at cub.  
Cub sits back down with a slight tinge of red in his cheeks.  
Seeing the tension in the air, wolf attempts to make a conversation with cub.  
"So cub have you ever heard of a person called Alex rider"  
Cub visibly tensed at the name. Confused, Wolf acknowledges it but dismisses it.  
"Um no. Why?"  
"Come on cub. Don't tell me that you have never heard of Alex rider. The famous agent." This was eagle. Oh how much eagle loved the Alex rider stories. Eagle launched into his explanation.  
"Nobody has ever seen this agent in action but there have been rumours about him. Rumours that are so unbelievable, so crazy, that people have began to think that he is a myth." Eagle loved telling stories too. The whole canteen has stopped to listen  
to eagles story. They will never admit it but they loved the Alex rider stories too. I mean who couldn't.  
"The rumours say that he once went to this SaS camp. Nobody knows when. Then on his first mission he saved all of school children in Britain from evil computers. He then went to America and saved the world from a nuclear attack. Now here is where the  
story gets unbelievable. He was seen on the presidential plane and saved the world then. Some say he even came across the worlds top assassin yassen gregorovich. And survived, highly unlikely, though that is controversial. Then some rumours went as  
far as he went up to space. After that rumour nobody knows what to believe. Some say he was in austrailia. Others say he was in America. Some say in the Amazon. And some far fetched rumours which no one believes says he went up against scorpia." Eagle  
scoffed "He may be amazing but scorpia is just too far. Anyway. Nobody knows who this agent works for. Some say cia some say mi6 and some say asis wherever he is and wherever he works , he is known as a hero. Alex rider the superspy. 100% success  
rate. Saved the world many times"  
Eagle told this story like you would tell a mystery story and the whole canteen was hooked.  
Suddenly cub stood up. Startling everyone. He looked angry. The look in his eyes could kill. He then walked out.  
Everybody stared.  
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LADIES DOING SITTING DOWN GOSSIPING LIKE A BUNCH OF OLD WOMEN AT BINGO. GET OUT OF HERE AND GO DO YOUR ACTIVITIES."  
At that everybody jumped and raced out.

Alex PoV:  
ARGHHHH those stupid sas soldiers with their stupid rumours. They way eagle told it made it look like I'm a myth. That everything I've been through is something out of a children's story. And all that about scorpia. Damn yes I've "gone against scorpia.  
"Some far fetched rumour" I scoffed at that. that wasn't even half of my story. What will they do when they realise that the famous Alex rider is actually a 15 year old. When they realise that he has defeated scorpia not once but twice. What will  
they-  
Stop this Alex. Stop it. Your Wall is shaking. You need to hold it steady.  
They won't find out because you won't let them. Let them live in their delusional world. Their ignorance proves their innocence and just because you wish you were ignorant doesn't give you the right to unleash your anger.  
I walked to our fist activity which was combat training. This was going to be good. Maybe I can get some revenge.

I walk in and a couple of minutes later the rest of k unit join me. I can tell they are shooting coded looks behind my back but I couldn't bring my self to care.  
Wolf speaks up.  
"Ok cub, as this is your first combat training since you came back. We want to test how much you improved, if at all." He allowed himself a little smirk.  
"So what we are going to do is me snake and eagle are going to go against you. We will play attack and you defend. The aim is to see how fast you can stay up. We will not be holding back"  
You won't but I will. Alex smiled at that thought. He couldn't risk killing any of them.  
They began circling cub. Wolf was the first to attack. Alex dodged easily. Then snake. Then eagle. Then all of them. Alex kept dodging and blocking but someone landed a punch on his arm. He didn't gasp in pain or any of that sort. No something else happened.  
Wolf saw it first. Cubs eyes became glazed. His eyes hardened and it looked like he was lost in his own world. He then began to attack. Attack with such ferocity that all the others could was block and dodge but not the same as cub. They were too  
slow and cub was too fast. Cub was dangerous. The implications were undesirable.  
When Alex got punched, the wall in his mind slipped a bit as he remembered the pain and all he saw was Nile and julius grief and dr three coming at him. He knew that if they got him he will be tortured. His man became empty of all thought but one: He  
had to get away.  
He began to attack them. His will power growing stronger. Adrenaline rushing through him, coursing through his veins. In a matter of minutes he had then on the floor. That's when he realised who they were and remembered where he was.  
Snake was on the floor before he even realised what was happening. He managed to get a look at cub and saw the intention of killing in Cubs eyes. They we determined and powered by anger. This was not the cub he knew. This was a different person. A war  
veterinarian going through flashbacks. As a unit medic and studier of phycology, snake recognised the signs of ptsd but dismissed the though. Cub was too young.  
Now he looked at cub and saw the realisation dawn on cub. Snake realised is was safe to get up and walked over to cub. But wolf spoke first.  
"What the hell was that cub?"  
"I'm sorry" Cubs voiced in a hoarse whisper.  
"sorry? SORRY?" Oh no wolf was getting angry. He had a temper and now his pride has been punctured.  
"ONE MOMENT YOU WERE DEFENDING AND THEN OUT OF NOWHERE YOU BEGAN TO ATTACK LIKE GOD KNOWS WHAT AND THEN YOU SAY SORRY?"  
Cub looked down. At that moment who looked less like a soldier and more like a child receiving a stern talking to.  
"I didn't mean to"  
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T MEAN TOO? WHATEVER THAT WAS CUB,IT WAS DANGEROUS. MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN"  
"Yes sir"  
Snake could see that wolf was calming down.  
"Come on guys it's time for swimming. We better not be late. " curiosity was coursing through snake but he knew there was a time and place for everything.  
Eagle nodded enthusiastically. Wolf glared and cub just got up. Face once again devoid of any emotion. This face was usually seen on soldiers, on a 17 year old, it was just wrong.  
Everyone followed him in silence. Like the calm before the storm, Alex thought.

They reached the lake and everyone began to take the shirt off. Everyone that is except cub.  
"Come on cub take your shirt off and get inside" wolf said impatiently.  
"Umm is it ok if I swim with my shirt on?" Alex asked looking at his feet.  
"why in the world would you want to do that" snake asked. " it'll only slow you down"  
"I just don't feel comfortable taking it off"  
"Why? Are you hiding something?" Wolf mocked. Little did he realise that cub tensed at the accusation.  
"No. I just don't want too"  
"Fine then" wolf waved him off impatiently. " as long as you can keep up"  
The SAS soldiers dismissed this as embarrassment.

And so they began.  
Not only did Alex keep up but he beat everyone else in record breaking time.  
"Where" eagle gasped taking in as much oxygen as possible" in the world did you learn how to swim like that" he breathed.  
Alex smiled. "If you were chased by a shark, you would swim like that too"  
The others stared,shocked into silence.  
Alex held the silence for 3 seconds then burst out laughing.  
"why you little-" wolf began only to be cut off by cub.  
"Language wolf"  
Wolf glared at Alex. One of his scariest glares. Everyone else flinched. But not Alex. When facing the worst madmen the world has to offer, little wolf glares are childish.  
"Stop glaring wolf. It ruins your beautiful face"  
Alex then took off running chased by a threatening wolf who was followed by two shocked sas man. Nobody ever dared say anything like that to wolf.  
They had to go save cub.

They followed wolf and cub to the hut but stopped when they saw a smiling Alex pinning down a furious wolf.  
"Eagle station yourself to keep wolf away from cub. Cub get of wolf." Snake ordered  
Alex got off wolf but in the moment before eagle caught him, wolf kicked out and struck Alex in the chest. Right where bullet scar was. Alex let out a gasp, cluched his chest in extreme agony but forced down the scream.  
"cub are you ok" snake asked recognising the signs of intense pain.  
"Yh I'm good" he managed to gasp out.  
Snake didn't think so, but let it drop.

Half an hour later when wolf had calmed and everyone was sitting in awkward silence wondering how they were supposed to use this time to 'bond'.  
snake snapped his fingers.  
"I knew I forgot something. Cub as your unit medic I need to do a full check up on you to make sure you are able to do all activities"  
Alex's eyes widened. " no snake it's fine you don't have to"  
"Cub" eagle warned" don't say no to snake when he is in medic zone"  
But cub didn't listen. Alex didn't know what would happen if he took of his shirt. Questions to say the least.  
" no-"  
"Cub this is no time for your embarrassment, just take the damn shirt off and let my check up on you"  
Cub shook his head. "I'm fine. I can do all the exercises. What could I possible have the could stop me from doing the exercises"  
"Listen cub, this is an examination. I have to check to make sure you are ok. If there is nothing wrong then what are you worried about" snake tried.  
Alex shook his head  
" you either do this the easy way or the hard way" wolf threatened  
Alex shook his head.  
"Hard way it is then"  
With three sas men ganging up on him, Alex knew that he couldn't escape without hurting any one them. But that didn't mean he was going to lie down and let them walk all over him. He would decide what the see and what they don't.

Backing up against the wall, to take his shirt off, Alex began to analyse his situation. His back against the wall meant that the worst burns and scars and whips were hidden. And if he took his shirt off in a certain way and clutched it against  
his chest , he could keep the bullet scar hidden. That left his torso. Littered with knife cuts and burns. But you can't hide everything. Alex sighed mentally. This was not going to end up good.  
He took his shirt of keeping his back to the wall and clutching his shirt to cover his front . He couldn't do it. He couldn't show them.

Wolf didn't understand why the kid didn't want to take his shirt off. Surely he wasn't that shy. Cub took his shirt of slowly and clutched it to his chest covering most of his front. What was strange was that their were a couple of cuts creeping out from  
under the shirt and they looked strange yet familiar. He couldn't put his finger on why.  
"Put your shirt down cub. I need to actually see your body to examine it"

Cub shook his head. He did not want to do this.  
"Cub. I cannot see how healthy you are if you are keeping the shirt like that. So stop being such a baby and let go of the damn shirt."  
Cub seemed defeated and two words escaped his lips before he let the shirt down keeping his arm crossed over his heart.  
"I'm sorry"

Three SAS men drew sharp intakes of breath at the sight infront of them. A child's body was there littered with scars varying in cuts and sizes.  
Alex couldn't look at any of them. He didn't know what to expect. He knew that he won't see the normal expressions. And he didn't want to see any sympathy or pity.  
Snake walked over to cub to get a better look at... At, he didn't know what that was.  
"Cub turn around"  
Alex shook his head, hand never leaving his heart.  
" cub" snake warned.  
Alex shook his head.  
Snake walked over to Alex and grabbed him be the shoulder to turn him around.

As snake saw the mutilated back he let out a gasp and some incoherent swear words " cub what's happened to you" he asked in barely more than a whisper

"Snake what wrong" wolf asked.

Snake moved out of the way still staring and 3 SAS men gasped.  
" cub what the hell has happened to you" wolf asked.

Alex tried to turn back around but snake didn't let him. Alex used both his hands to move snakes hand realising too late that he let his bullet show.

"Cub IS THAT A BULLET SCAR?"  
Alex flinched and shook his head trying to cover his scar before the others saw.  
"No it's not."  
Wolf then came over and forcefully removed Alex's hands.  
"CUB HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET A BULLET IN THE HEART."  
"It's three centimetres above my heart actually"  
"CUB HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET HIT BY A BULLET"  
"It's not important"  
Wolf let out a maniac laugh."HOW THE HELL IS A BULLET WOUND NOT IMPORTANT?"  
"Why do you care?"  
"WHY DO I CARE? BECAUSE THE YOUNGEST PERSON IN MY UNIT HAS A FLIPPING BULLET SCAR RIGHT ABOVE HIS HEART AND HE DIDNT BOTHER TO TELL ANYONE. HE COULD HAVE GOT SERIOUSLY INJURED. AND NOW HE REFUSES TO TELL ME WHY!"

"Cub have you been tortured?" Everyone turned to look at snake.  
"What" eagle asked  
Suddenly it clicked for wolf.  
"Those marks. On your back and your front. Their torture marks aren't they?"  
Alex looked at his feet and nodded.  
"Who would do such a thing to a kid?" Eagle asked.  
At this Alex looked up, eyes filled with hatred and anger.  
"I'm not a kid."  
At this Alex picked up his shirt put it on and walked over to his bed.  
"Cub do your parents abuse you?" Snake asked, wanting to make sense of all of this.  
"My parents are dead"  
Three SAS men stared at this young man who said such a heavy statement with no emotion.  
"Relatives?"  
"Dead"  
"God father?"  
Alex rolled his hands into fists. And let out a deadly laugh  
"Dead"  
"Guardian?"  
"Mi6"  
Three now speechless SAS men stared at this being in front of them. Who had every single family dead. And who can possibly have mi6 as guardians.  
Snake sensing the boys discomfort decided to change the subject.  
"This is supposed to be our get to know each other time so let's start with names. I'm Paul Aberdeen, eagle is Matt stents  
And wolf is James de Luca. You are?

" I'm Alex"  
"Alex what?"  
Alex hesitated for a second.  
"Just Alex"  
"Ok" eagle said picking up on the hesitation.  
Snake opened his mouth to ask another question when Alex decided to cut in.  
" it dinner time"  
They got up quite reluctantly and Together they jogged to the dinner hall. As they entered heads turned there way but they ignored them. They got their mush and sat down.  
The canteen was full of chatter but k unit sat in awkward silence. Suddenly a man by the code name of bear from d unit came up to eagle.  
"Umm eagle. Do you mind telling us a story about Alex rider?"  
Alex tensed again at the mention of the name. Only snake and wolf noticed this.  
Eagle smiled so widely it almost fell of his face. "Sure thing bear. Which one do you want to hear."  
Bear thought about it then replied "the space one"  
Eagle began speaking.  
"On one of riders missions. He was sent into space. Do you remember ark Angel space hotel?" Everyone nodded "well rumour has it that is was a bomb that was supposed to destroy Washington, D.C. Rider was sent on a rocket into space and managed to diffuse  
the bomb in the last second but not before he had a space fight with once of the bad guys. Rumour has it the bad guy had a knife and gun and rider was weapon less. How he survived? No body knows. That was one of the stories that have the least detail"

That night, yassen plagued Alex's nightmares. Alex was on the presidential plane and cray shot yassen.  
"YASSEN" he yelled.  
He ran to yassen trying to stop the bleeding. He remembered yassens last words. "I loved your father. In a way I loved you too. Got to Venice. Find scorpia. There you will find your destiny"  
He forced himself to wake up after that. He knew that dream. The one where he finds out about his dad and then he almost kills Mrs Jones and then-  
Stop thinking about it Alex told himself. He checked the time.  
3:02am  
Not like he was going to get anymore sleep. He got up to take a shower. He was sweating. 10 minutes later he went back to his bed and had nothing to do. He then remembered that he bought some school books in case he had anytime to catch up.  
He turned his torch on and began to study.

2 hours later snake woke up and was surprised to see the youngest member of the unit studying? This kid was full of surprises. Snake could never make sense of the kid. He thought him to be about 17/18. He always thought that cub had dropped out of school  
or something but his rich parents managed to pull a few strings to get him here. But every second that he spends with this child proves that theory more and more wrong.  
"Cub? Are you studying?" Snake asked cautiously.  
Cub didn't even look up. "Yeah"  
"Why?"  
"Couldn't sleep"  
"But why are you studying."  
"Because I need too"  
Arghhh snake was getting frustrated with this kids vague answers.  
"Cub?"  
"Yeah?"  
"How old are you?"  
This time cub looked up and when snake made eye contact with cub, there was a moment when he saw tiredness and pain and hurt but it was gone as quickly as it had come covered by a once again blank emotionless mask.  
"I can't answer that"  
Everyone was beginning to get up and wolf was the one to ask the next question.  
"Why?"  
"It's classified"  
"WHAT?" This was eagle. Ever the dramatic one.  
"How can your age be classified?"  
Cub shrugged his shoulders and carried on working.  
"Cub how old are you" snake asked again  
"How old do you think I am?" Cub answered with a question, eyes not leaving the book.  
"I dunno 17 18" replied snake  
Cub nodded to himself but said nothing.

That evening, all units had to attend a lecture about terrorist organisations.

Once everyone was seated- Alex making sure to sit next to the exit incase he needs a quick escape.  
Alex zoned out as soon as he said "good morning soldiers"  
It wasn't completely Alex's fault. He just knew that the man wouldn't say anything new.  
*half an hour later*  
"Ok soldiers. I am now going to move on to the most dangerous criminal organisation the world. Or should I say, was the most dangerous criminal organisation, until they were knocked down a level by one of their mission failures. However, they are still  
somewhere at the top and are slowly rising back to the top. Their name: scorpia."  
The lecturer paused for effect and the soldiers began to murmur to one another. Nobody noticed the youngest member slip out. Nobody that is except snake for who happened to be sitting next to cub.  
Snake who was caught in a battle between curiosity and follow orders, decided to follow cub out hoping for some answers.  
Snake walked out of the hall and was surprised to see cub sitting down in the ground in the middle of the huts, hands wrapped around his knees, gazing at the stars. Cub looked so vulnerable at the moment and the way his shoulders were slumped in defeat.  
Snake, not willing to disturb cub, returned back to the hall. Cub still on his mind.  
"Now I would like to tell you about a man called agent rider" there were sharp intakes of breath.  
"No, not that myth of Alex rider who you sit gossiping about like a bunch of old ladies" sheepish smiles all around.  
"No this is a real person. John Rider. He was one of the only two people to fully infiltrate scorpia. The second is unknown.  
John rider was in scorpia for about 2-3 years delivering information to the military intelligence, sector 6. However from limited information, we were able to gather that agent rider wanted to leave, to go back to his newly born son and wife about 15  
years ago, when he was discovered by scorpia and killed. Nevertheless, he was the first to get through scorpia and though he did not fully succeed, he managed to get vital information.  
A couple of months ago, scorpia was planning a mass murder of school children in Britain but their plans were, for the first time in living memory, completely and utterly destroyed. This is why scorpia is no longer the top organisation. Other than that,  
our resources say very little. Thank you soldiers. You are dismissed."  
The soldiers got up to leave and snake was shocked to see cub sitting right beside him.  
*before*  
At the mention of scorpia, Alex felt his wall slipping. Every single second he spends in this place, threatens his carefully built and constructed wall. Covering his emotions became more and more difficult. The best he could do at times is the blank expression.  
Laughing became harder, blocking the thoughts and flashbacks were becoming nearly impossible.  
Now as the lecturer mentioned scorpia, Alex knew he was going to be overwhelmed. He had to escape, so he did.  
Sitting down, gazing at the stars, Alex did his most favourite thing as a child which was recognising the constellations that his uncle taught him. The constellations seemed to be the only thing that him and his uncle done that had nothing to do with  
the world of espionage. The only thing they did together out of pure enjoyment.

He heard steps behind him and recognised snake's slow defined steps. At that moment he couldn't care about the vulnerable position he was in. He was just hoping that snake wouldn't come any closer. If he did, he would have seen eyes that looked too old  
and depressed to be human, their edges brimming with suppressed tears.  
Sure enough, snake went back and Alex followed him and few seconds later, not being able to imagine the consequences if he was caught.

*back to the present*  
After they left to auditorium and returned to the hut, snake turned on to cub.  
"Cub why did you leave during the speech"  
"Hmmm?" Cub asked not fully focused  
"Cub are you even listening to me?"  
"Umm sorry what?"  
"Why did you leave during the lecture?"  
"He what?" Wolf snapped  
"He left during the lecture" snake replied.  
Wolf turned on cub.  
"Why in the world did you leave during the speech? That would have been a lifetime punishment if you were caught?"  
"But I wasn't" cub replied testing wolfs patience.  
"That's beside the point" eagle butted in before wolf could explode.  
"I just wanted fresh air that's all"  
Wolf scoffed " so you left during a very important speech that could one save your life all because you wanted fresh air?" Sarcasm dripping of every word.  
Cub didn't answer wolf, instead turning around to go to sleep. Today has emotionally drained him. Any more questions and he wouldn't be able to control what comes out of his mouth.

Wolf doesn't take kindly to disrespect. Anybody who knows him knows that and  
Having someone so bluntly ignore your question is high on the disrespectful scale.

"Cub" wolf began voice quiet but full with anger. Eagle and snake flinched slightly  
"When I ask you a question, you answer it?"

Alex did not want to go through wolfs lecture at this time so he decided to let something "slip" that will shut them up.  
He looked at wolf in the eyes, letting some of the experience that he has gathered over the past year show in his eyes. Just a tiny bit, but enough .  
"I already knew exactly what the teacher was going to say" Alex said in barely more than a whisper, but with power "and it was because of that knowledge that I almost died." Alex tried to refrain from rubbing his bullet wound.  
With that not, Alex turned over and promptly fell asleep.

The same cannot be said for snake. He couldn't get Cubs words out of his head. Cub was like this bug puzzle and every now and then you get a piece of the puzzle but they never fit together. They are close but the joining pieced are missing. But every  
time you get a new piece you realise that the picture is a lot bigger than you expected. Snake tried to turn it over in his head.  
Cub's guardians are mi6 and they sent him here for training. He has no living relatives. He is covered in torture marks and has a bullet scar. He knows about terrorists and he was almost killed.  
Snake rolled the information in his head.  
Cub and his family could have been involved in a terrorist attack. That would explain his relatives deaths. His guardians are mi6 so the terrorist could have taken him in for interrogation. That explains some of the torture marks. But the bullet wound  
is unexplainable. And why are mi6 Cubs guardians anyway. He could have been sent to a care home. Snake couldn't rid himself of the feeling that there was something big going on.

That night Alex had one of his worse dreams yet. _Hewas at scorpia held in one of the torture rooms. That was normal. They began with the normal torture methods: knives, whips, water, electricity. Most of the time he managed to hold back the screams. This wasn't new to him. He expected it._

 _But now there was no one there. He waited for what felt like hours but suddenly someone came in._


	3. Chapter 3

3  
 _Somebody familiar , though it was hard to focus through the pain ._

 _"Dad?" Alex had only seen pictures. But it was unmistakable. The blonde hair. Brown eyes. But it was impossible. His dad was dead. Then in walked another person. A female._

 _"Mum?"_

 _" Alex" The sound of his mums voice washed over him. This was not possible. But it was so real._

 _His mum walked over to him and reached out a hand to touch his face. He leaned into the touch trying to invalid himself in her warmth. Trying to remember every single feature in her hands. This would be the only time he could._

 _Before he could stop himself a tear rolled down his cheek._

 _"Mum help me please. I don't want to do this anymore. Please make it stop. Mum it hurts. It hurts everywhere. I give up. I only did it to keep her here. I didn't want her to go back to America. For my own selfish reasons. I didn't mean to. If I just said no then she wouldn't have died. Tom wouldn't have been tortured. The pleasures wouldn't be in danger. It's all my fault. Now look what happened." He couldn't stop himself. The tears were rolling down._

 _"I killed them. I killed them all. Mum do you know how many lives I've taken. It hurts. It hurts everywhere. I want it to end. Please mum. Please make it end." He knew he was begging but he just wanted it all to stop. It's not fair that he stays living, while the others died. He should be dead._

 _"Alex I'm so so sorry. This is my fault. If I knew this would I happen I would never have-" his dad was silenced by the sound of a bullet and a hole though his head._

 _"DAD!" Alex screamed._

 _His mum ran to his dad's side. She turned around to look at Alex. "Al, I love you-" then she too was silenced by another bullet._

 _"MUM" he screamed. "MUM DONT LEAVE ME. MUM WAKE UP" he couldn't run to them. His hands were tied to a pole behind him._

 _The door swung open and Ian walked in. He reached his parents and was shot dead._

 _Then jack walked in. Two steps. Dead._

 _The yassen. Dead_

 _Sayle. Dead_

 _Mr grin. Dead_

 _Grief. Dead_

 _The clones. Fifteen. Dead._

 _Mrs stellenbosche. Dead._

 _Sarov. Dead._

 _Conrad. Dead._

 _Cray. Dead._

 _Rothman. Dead._

 _Nile. Dead._

 _Drevin. Dead._

 _Major yu. Dead._

 _Ash. Dead._

 _McCain. Dead._

 _Razim. Dead._

 _They kept coming in and being shot dead. Piling one on top of the other. Forming a mountain of human bodies._

 _In came more people. People he didn't know._

 _He began to understand. All these people. His parents. His uncle. Jack. Yassen. The madmen. He was here because they died or they died because he was here. Here meaning the world of espionage._

 _He was screaming. Begging for whoever was doing this to stop. He screamed that he knew. He knew he was a murderer. He knew that he had killed. He knew already. But they wouldn't stop. They kept coming in._

 _He saw Julius grief walk in. The only man Alex had looked in the eye and shot. He waited for him to die like the other but he didn't. Julius walked up to Alex and handed Alex a gun. He understood. Julius was forcing Alex to do it again. But he wouldn't. He couldn't. Julius Untied Alex's hand and forced the gun into them._

 _"No" he said. " I won't do it. I won't shoot you"._

 _"Julius smirked._

 _"You will. Because you want to. You are a murderer. An assassin. You will do it. And you will enjoy it."_

 _"Alex felt his hand rise and fire the shot._

 _"No" he screamed as he watch the life leave julius._

"For heavens sake, wake up cub".

Wolf woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of talking. His thoughts went along the lines of 'who the hell was talking. If it's eagle I swear I am going to kill him' wolf got up, ready to beat the crap out of anybody who woke him up when he realised  
that the talking was coming from cub. But it wasn't really talking, more like the whisper you here when somebody is sleep talking.  
Curious, wolf walked up to Cubs bunk to hear what was said.  
"Mum" came a whisper.  
For all the expressions that cub hides during the day, at night he is like an open book.  
Wolf watched Cubs expressions change from confused, to comfort. The young innocence that showed on Cubs face made wolf truly wonder how old cub was.  
Before wolf could dwell on that line of thought, he saw Cubs expression shift to one of surprise? Horror?  
Cub then started silently screaming. The sound was barely audible, but it was horrifying. It was worse than normal screaming. It seemed muted. Tortured.  
Cub then stared pleading. Begging. Calling out stop. Begging someone to stop. He began crying. Tears running down his cheeks. It was torture just to watch. Cub carried on begging but it came to an abrupt stop.  
Wolf thought it was over and began to turn around when he heard it.  
"I won't shoot you"  
Wolf being a soldier, turned around to find cub looking horrified.  
He then stared screaming "no"  
No longer in a whisper, but a shout. Eagle and snake jumped up, ready for action.  
Wolf signalled for them to come over. They came over and heard the shouts of "no" coming from cub.  
Wolf had enough. He had never seen such pain on an adult, let alone a child.  
He didn't want to startle the kid and risk his life like last time so he decided to shout to wake him up

"For heavens sakes cub, wake up!"  
Cub woke up and sat up with a gasp. It took a moment for him to realise where he was and what was happening and when he did, he brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his hands around them, attempting to hide himself.

When cub woke up, he was thankful beyond belief towards wolf. He knew he wouldn't have been able to wake himself. That had been the worst dream by far. His wall had been punctured but he couldn't summon enough energy and will power to repair it at the  
moment. He couldn't shield himself from k unit. Couldn't bring up the blank mask of indifference. He just let them stare. Let them glimpse some of the person underneath the masks.  
Whoever that person was.

K unit stared at their youngest member. For once he didn't have the horrible mask of indifference, but what they saw was way worse. Beyond the first mask of happiness and the next of indifference and blank. Underneath all that was...  
Nothing. The boy infront of them was by all means of the word empty. Hollow.

Kunit stared at their team mate. They've seen war veterans but never had they encountered one like this. A kid.  
"Cub are you ok?" Eagles quiet voice pounded in the eerie silence. It was a stupid question, but it was a necessary one.

"I'm great. Just great. Fine and dandy." Came the sarcastic reply which held no humour.  
"Do you want to talk about it?" Snake asked.  
Alex shifted his gaze to snake and snake felt Cubs eyes pierce into his own. He felt like he was being examined. X-rayed. He finally understood what Harry Potter felt like when sitting in front of Dumbledore.

After 5 seconds Alex replied with a short cut "no" then got up and walked out of the hut.  
They didn't stop him.

Alex walked out of the hut wanted to get away from their curiosity. He needed a moment to compose himself . To gain back some of the sanity.  
They didn't care about him. The only asked because they wanted to satisfy their curiosity. Nobody cared about him. Nobody. Because all those that do- no did- are dead because of scorpia. Whether direct or not.  
First his parents.  
Then his godfather.  
Then his uncle.  
Then yassen.  
Then jack.  
Every single person who had cared about him was dead. He had no one. It was better that way now. Because scorpia can no longer take anybody away from him. The irony in that statement almost made Alex laugh. Almost. Scorpia told him not to form any connections  
because in this world connections only get the ones you loved killed and you. Wasn't that what happens with yassen. Died because he refused to kill Alex. Wasn't that what happened to jack. If Jack didn't know Alex then she would be alive and breathing.  
Alex wouldn't let that happen to anyone else. Nobody else would die because of him. He wouldn't let anybody care about him. He will push them all away. Keep them safe.  
Alex felt his eyes burning and scolded himself. He will not cry. He will not give anybody the satisfaction of seeing him cry. He will not let anyone know that he is breaking.  
Alex steeled himself. He searched into the deepest part of his fragmented soul to find some traces of sanity. He brought back the mask. The mask of cub. And now the mask of Alex. Just Alex.

When k unit saw cub walk in they were truly and utterly shocked. There were no traces of the person who had left. The person who can back was completely different. Apart from the eyes. The pitiless holes. The Windows to the soul.  
Cub walked to his bunk and began to get ready. K unit followed his lead.

Out of the blue snake piped up in an attempt to break the silence. " we have shooting today cub. We were told that you will be joining us"  
Alex tensed, just the slightest so nobody noticed but his heart rate was increasing rapidly at the reminder of his dream and went on the edge of a flashback.

Breakfast was short and uneventful and apart from the obvious tension between k-unit, nothing happened.

K-unit then set off to do the shooting exercise.

"Alright soldiers... And Child" began the instructor with a smirk on his face.  
Alex glared at the man and k-unit moved protectively closer but nobody said anything. Alex frowned internally at this action. K-unit were never protective and they had no reason to be of him. He put it in the corner of his mind to think about it later.  
"Today the exercises will be slightly harder than everyday. You will have 12 bullets and six moving targets. The aim is to get two bullets at the centre of each target.  
Any questions"  
Silence.  
"Good. Now cub can you shoot?"  
"yes" cub replied.  
The instructor waited for him to elaborate but when he got no reply  
"How well can you shoot?"  
"Fairly" another vague answer revealing nothing.  
The instructor was getting very annoyed but decided that the only way to find out is to see for himself.  
"Ok cub. As you are the newest, you can go first."  
Cub didn't reply but walked up to the gun.  
As Alex walked up to the gun, he felt the wall that he so carefully built, begin to crumble.  
His hand hovered over the gun.  
The past and the present were threatening to intertwine I'm a series of flashbacks bringing back the worst of his memories. The ones were he has killed. Every second the flashbacks become harder to control and everyday they are getting worse.

He didn't see the common soldiers gun on the table. He saw the gun he aimed at Mrs Jones and the gun he aimed at Julius grief and the gun he trained with on malagasto.  
He couldn't do this. He couldn't fire a single bullet. His wall would shatter and he would be right back in the beginning.  
He couldn't do this.  
"Come on cub sometime today would be good" mocked the instructor. "Is cub afraid of the gun?"

Alex steeled himself. He gathered every bit of strength and courage that he could muster and picked up the gun.

He was surprised by the how familiar the gun felt in his hand. How right it felt. Everything tuned out and his eyes glazed over as he remembered the beauty of this mechanism in his hand. The innocence of this gun that only does evil when it is forced  
to by the wielder. Alex never thought of it this way but the gun was like him. The gun forced by the holder. Alex forced by the employers. He subconsciously began to run his hand over the gun, working out every mechanism that this gun has built this  
work of art. This he remembered, is how an assassin feels.  
"Ok cub" the instructor said hesitantly as he witnessed the dangerous way in which cub moved with the gun. "Reassemble the gun"  
Alex did so without a moments hesitation, letting his instincts take over. He realised that this gun was very dirty and needed someone to clean it. He told himself to do it later.  
He then walked up to the firing range and pointed the gun. Only it was no longer a gun but an extension of his arm. Just like scorpia taught him. He cleared his mind of all emotion and thought and focused on his targets. He then closed his eyes imagining  
the targets and began shooting as soon as he opened his eyes.  
Bullseye bullseye bullseye.  
He felt the rush of having so much power, so much control.  
But suddenly he remembered the moment when he was infront of julius grief and he couldn't stop the sudden emotional takeover . He was there again, the night that jack died and he was infront of gried holding the gun to his head.  
And with the sound of Alex's gun hitting the final bullseye, the bullet entered julius' head once again.  
Suddenly he heard footsteps and turned around to see Mrs stellenbosche, mr grin, Nile and Conrad running towards him. He got into the defensive stance, on the balls of his feet with centre of gravity low. He knew he couldn't defeat them all. He could  
hardly hold his defends against one, but he had to try. He had to survive to go back home to jack.  
He waited for them to get close enough and he attacked. He attacked using every bit of knowledge he had gained from karate, from his uncle, from his missions, from malagasto( though he could never deliver the killing blow) he dodged almost every hit and  
he didn't feel the ones that landed because of the adrenaline rush. However they seemed to be holding back, non of them delivering a killing move even though they had plenty of opportunities. They seemed to want to grab and restrain him. No he wouldn't  
let them capture him. He would rather die then go to whatever hellhole they have planned for him.  
He hit one of then man in the temple and they were knocked unconscious. That made him falter. The blow was not strong enough to knock any of the assassins he was fighting.

Slowly, like a picture focusing, he began to remember where he was and realise who he was fighting: k-unit.

Wolf saw the way cub looked at the gun. It was with something like fear. No it was way worse than fear. Wolf didn't understand and wanted to stop cub but he picked up the gun.  
When cub picked up the gun, there was a sudden change in his demeanour and he began to play around with the gun.  
Cub would never admit it, but the way cub moved the gun was scary. It was dangerous. Not the he-can-accidentally-pull-the-trigger-child dangerous but the he-can-kill-you-assassin dangerous.  
Cub then dissembled and reassembled the gun so fast that wolf was stunned. It was obvious this kid had some experience with shooting, but nothing would prepare him for what was to come.

When cub began shooting, it wasn't normal shooting but instinctive firing which was not taught in any legal government business. It was suspicious.  
Cub shot every single bullet with exact precision without even looking. It was amazing for lack of a better word.

As snake watched, he noticed something change in cub. Cub tensed and his eyes glazed over. He finished shooting and k-unit rand up to him to get answers for how he could shoot like that.  
But as they walked up to cub, he lashed out and began to fight. K-unit had no choice but to bring up the defends and fight back, but this was their first experience of Cubs full on fighting.  
Snake saw the obvious signs of PTSD but that made no sense. He didn't know how old cub was, but he was definitely too old to shot signs of ptsd.  
Snake had no time to think, cub was fighting all out and the unit were trying to either knock him out or restrain him but they had no chance. Cub was fighting like a professional-no he was a professional.

Suddenly eagle dropped to the ground unconscious and Cubs attacks subsided.

Cub looked at his unit with fear and started backing away, trying to escape. His eyes darted from side to side looking for a possible exit, before his eyes narrowed and he escaped out of a window.

Before wolf could ran after him, a hand slipped over his mouth.  
He barely had time to recognise the smell of chlorine before he was knocked out.

Alex ran and ran until his legs couldn't keep going any longer.  
His mind was racing trying to comprehend what was happening but he couldn't focus. His wall had completely shattered. Emotional pain that he kept locked up behind that wall for so long has just been let loose and it was agonising. The memories were strong  
and every sound brought a flashback, every breath reminded him of his past. He didn't have the will power to stop them. He couldn't keep that wall up any longer. And because of that he couldn't go back and face k-unit. How could he explain what happened  
and what will happen. How could he explain when he had no self control left. They would not even care to understand.  
A voice piped up in his head. Small, quiet, shy.  
'But they do care.'  
'No they don't. They can care about me.' He told that voice in a shut up way  
'Why not?' The voice argued.  
'Nobody cares about me'  
'They do'  
'They can't'  
'Why not?'  
"Because everybody who cares about me is dead" he screamed out loud to the world.  
Silence.  
And then once again that voice in his head spoke.  
'Not everybody'  
'Who's left?' He questioned himself.  
'You know who'  
'Not him'  
'He's alive and you know it'  
'He is dead to me'  
'No he is not. You care about him the Same way he cares about you'  
'Oh yh? He cares about me by putting me in a bull fight'  
'Stop finding excuses' the voice told him. 'Now get your butt of the ground and haul it of to the canteen before dinner is over. You can deal with k-unit later'  
The voice that was so small was now controlling him and he found himself walking to the canteen.  
He opened the door and froze in his tracks.  
"Hello Alex. Nice of you to join us" 


	4. Chapter 4

Alex stared at what he was seeing without comprehending any of it.  
'No, no, no!' He repeated in his head. The memories threatened to overwhelm him but he pushed them to the back of his mind. When in a life or death situation and you require your head, it becomes easier. He had to focus on what was going on.  
"What Alex, cat got your tongue? Last time I remember you were always ready with a comeback"  
Alex composed himself, clearing his mind of all emotion. Just like these people taught him  
"Walker" he stated in a calm voice.  
"Ah so you remember me?" His voice was playful. That was never good. It meant he had a game in mind.  
"What are you doing here?"  
"Revenge of course"  
Strange. That was very blunt. And obvious  
"How did you get in a camp full of fully trained SAS soldiers?"  
"Scorpia has its ways"  
"SCORPIA?" Came a disbelief shout from behind.  
Alex and walker turned around. Alex was shocked to see every member of the SAS including the sergeant bound by rope on the floor with k-unit at the front.  
"Yes scorpia" Walker replied with a grin on his face.  
"Cub what is going on?" Wolf directed his question to Alex. "What is scorpia doing here and what is all this talk about revenge?"  
Before Alex could say anything, walker decided to but in.  
"What? Alex- I mean cub, hasn't told you?" Walker said in mock surprise.  
"Told us what?" Eagle piped up, unable to hide the fear and suspicion in his voice.  
"Oh so you haven't told them Alex?"  
Alex clenched his fists and grit his teeth. If they were going to kill him then they might as well do it without all these games.  
"Stop this" snake shouted. "Who are you and what are you going to do"  
"Oh sorry, how could I forget? Mind my manners. Cub will introduce me. Alex?"  
Silence.  
"Alex?" Walked said as a warning.  
Alex spoke through gritted teeth. " this is walker, ex-cia agent, now assassin for scorpia"  
"How do you know him?" Someone called bear asked very suspiciously.  
Walker smiled very brightly. "Oh now we have got to the real reason we are here. Forgive me for not answering your question now, but all in due course"  
He turned to Alex.  
"Very good Alex, you remembered. Now you will, as I am sure you already know, be killed today, that is inevitable. But first we need something. I am sure you are very familiar with the saying 'hit two birds with one stone'" Alex grit his teeth harder.  
Mi6's favourite saying  
"Don't worry cub" walker began enjoying the effect of his words. " what we want is nothing painful. All we want is you to say something while we record it. We will first ask you politely and if you refuse then we will move on to more.." He paused as if  
thinking of the right word"... More persuasive methods, and only you can be responsible for the consequences"  
"What do you want" Alex repeated his question.  
"We want you to tell everyone the truth" Alex was surprised. He hadn't expected such a blunt and straight forward answer.  
"Why?"  
Walker seemed to be contemplating whether or not to answer. " well I hardly see the problem in answering. We think that mi6 should be taken down a few notches as I am sure you will agree" Alex mentally scoffed at that. " what better way to do that then  
to broadcast their association with scorpia."  
"What?!" Shouted wolf " that's impossible!"  
Alex didn't reply.  
Walker however was enjoying this. "Well I can't believe cub didn't tell you this. I think we can wait for him to tell you the truth?"  
Alex didn't say anything and the silence was held for half a minute before walker began again.  
"Forgive me cub. I admit that was very broad and vague. I will tell you exactly what you have to say. Then you will say it, we will record it, we shoot you and we will be off. Nothing too major. Unless of course you choose otherwise." Walker paused here  
for effect before continuing. " now all we want is you to say three things. 1:who you work for. 2 why you are so good at training which answers the question how you know me. And 3 your assignment"

Alex clenched his fists as realisation hit him. With those facts, they could show that mi6 were traitors to the country. Nobody would believe it if scorpia just said it but Alex's word is enough. And if they broadcast this, then mid's threat of telling  
that world thBut he would not tell them anything. Sure he wanted to see mi6 brought down but that did not he mean he wanted it to be at his expense.  
"That's classified" he said. Matching walkers calm tone. Anyone would think they were talking about the weather.

"That's a shame" walker commented though his tone hinted otherwise. "Final warning Alex."  
Alex remained stubbornly silent.

"Ok cub you forced us." He then spoke to his assassins but his eyes never leaving Alex. " bring him in"

Every single soldier drew a sharp breath as in walked a man in his thirties with blonde hair, icy blue eyes a scar running down his neck and the last person Alex expected to see. An Assassin known all over the world.

*flashback*  
Alex sat once again in the office in the Royal and general bank faced with the two most lifeless person he had seen. Mr blunt and Mrs Jones.  
He had come back from America after an attempted assassination on the pleasures and him being politely told by mr and Mrs pleasure that they no longer wanted him.  
He of course had been devastated that the last people left on the planet to care for him just neglected him but he understood. They of course were only thinking about safety.  
And so he found himself once again facing Mr blunt to decide his future. But he was not prepared for the first thing Mrs Jones said.

"Yassen gregorovich is alive"

Alex remembered the shock he felt take over him as the mention of that mans name and him being alive. He vaguely acknowledge the story that yassen had been held at mi6 since his mission eagle strike but was helped to escape by scorpia. Mi6 did not know  
of the complicated relationship between the man and the teenager so they assumed that this was scorpia start to seek revenge. Alex barely heard Mrs Jones telling him to go home and back his necessities. He was going straight to Brecon beacon for training  
and protection. Alex couldn't find it in himself to care about the hell on earth. Not when he just found out that yassen was alive.

It was only when he got to his empty house in Chelsea that anger took over.  
He remembered the guttural scream that escaped him before he punched the wall. He remembered the anger he felt towards the man that had killed his uncle and started his life as a spy. The man who had sent him to scorpia.  
He then remembered the anger draining out of him replaces by a numb feeling which was then replaced by realisation.

Yassen was one of the faces that plagued his nightmares, right next to Jack. Yassen was the only person who wanted to keep Alex alive in the field. Not because he was a weapon. But because he was Alex. Without yassen, Alex would never have found out about  
his parents. Without yassen he wouldn't be alive.  
Yassen who had shown worry when Alex was dragged into the games slayer game.  
Yassen who had taken a bullet for him.  
Yassen who refused to kill him.  
Yassen, who now was the single person left in the whole wide world who cared about Alex. The only person Alex had left.

Alex was a child and he needed the comfort of knowing that there was atleast one person left in the world who cared about him. And no matter how impossible the situation was. Alex knew he would hang onto that thought like his life depended on it.  
A small part of his mind told him that these kind of attachments were dangerous in his line of world but he quickly smothered that voice.  
He was not alone yet.  
He still had yassen.  
*flashback ended*

And that was the thought that raged though his head as he saw none other than the worlds best assassin yassen gregorovich walk through that door.

Alex was trained in the art of not showing emotion and none showed towards the man who was the only person who he had left. Who was his own- dare he say it- family left.  
Instead he turned back to walker.  
"What is this? some kind of joke?" Alex was surprised by the strength of his voice when inside he was crumbling.

"Ok the contrary Alex. This is very serious. We believe we have found your one true weakness."

Alex hated himself. Alex hated himself for forming such an attachment with yassen.

An assassin took out a gun and put it towards yassens head.  
Walker opened his mouth " so Alex. Have you reconsidered your thoughts and not answering"

Alex closed his eyes for a 3 seconds trying to collect his thoughts. He couldn't lose yassen. Not again. This man would not die because of Alex. Alex wanted so badly to open his mouth and speak. To hell with mi6. Let then be destroyed. It's there fault  
for employing a child in the first place.

He opened his mouth to speak but shut it straight away. Suddenly aware of all the SAS soldiers around him. What would they think of him. Would he ever be able to look any of them in eyes if he managed to survive today. It was not fair for him to have  
to make this decision. He wanted more than anything to keep yassen alive, but he developed a somewhat friendship with k-unit and he actually cared about what they think. He remembered the voice in his head telling him that k-unit cared about him.  
Maybe they did. He remembered how they moved protectively closer to him when the shooting instructor mocked him. Like it or not he cared about them. He didn't want to speak.

But then he looked at yassen and he saw the worry in yassens eyes. The months in mi6 custody must have had their effect on him. Yassen never showed emotion. But now Alex could see the worry and warmth in his eyes and Alex wanted nothing more than to escape  
this whole world with yassen. He had only felt these emotions with Jack and seeing those emotions in yassens eyes made Alex want to curl up and cry.  
He opened his mouth to speak.  
"I work for mi6"  
Walker smiled and a ripple of unease ran through the soldiers with a few shouts of 'yh right?' But walker turned towards them.

"Yes that's right soldiers. Your little cub works for mi6 but I hardly believe that is the most surprising thing in his story. Come on cub, time for question 2. Why are you so good at training?"

Alex looked at the his unit sitting at the front. He wondered when he started to think of them as his unit. He didn't want them to think bad of him. He couldn't tell them that he has trained with scorpia to be an assassin.  
"Cub we haven't got all day. I would very much like to see mr gregorovich' some brains blown out so please don't tempt me"

Alex didn't want to lose yassen. He felt like a selfish vulnerable child. "I..." He began

"Yes...?" walker prompted  
"I..." He steeled himself. He didn't care about the soldiers. " I was trained by scorpia to be an assassin"

A couple of swear words erupted from the soldiers and they began arguing with each other but k unit remained silent. It made sense, In a weird and far fetched way-yes but it still made sense. It explained his shooting, and his fighting and his ability  
to be a ninja. But they didn't want to think about what that made their team mate. It made him an assassin.

Eagle looked at cub but Cubs eyes were downcast. He refused to meet anybody's eyes. Eagles head was swimming with all this. Cub was an mi6 agent. Cub was a trained scorpia assassin. And what he couldn't even begin to comprehend was gregorovich. The worlds  
best assassin. What the hell was he doing here. And how the hell did cub know him. If eagle didn't know any better he would have said that gregorovich was being used as blackmail against cub. But that was impossible. Right?

Cub knew that Walker was enjoying every single moment. The whispers. The disbelief.

Walker opened his mouth to speak and everybody became quiet. "And the final question Alex. What was your assignment?"

Alex couldn't do it. Alex couldn't open his mouth to speak of his attempted assassination at Mrs Jones. The thought of if he actually killed plagued his nightmares. He couldn't speak about this.

Walker sensed Alex's discomfort and smiled. The SAS soldiers were a bonus. Walker didn't realise how close Alex had got to them within his stay. Another thing to use against him. What walker didn't know was that would be his mistake.

"What cub afraid to speak. Thinking about what your beloved unit and the other soldiers would think about you. A murderer? And assassin?" Walker mocked.  
"Afraid that the people who you have finally managed to feel as a tiniest form of family might turn against you because of your past and you will then be left with no one. The pleasures have neglected you. Your parents are dead. Your godfather was the  
one who killed them and he is now dead. Your uncle is dead killed by mr gregorovich here and he is soon to die. And Jack is dead also. Interesting death I must add-"

"Shut up"  
The words escaped from Alex barely more than a whisper but they effectively shut walker up because of the lethal was and malice behind the words. Alex felt himself loosing control. Anger taking over. He tried to reign himself in but at the mention of  
Jack he just snapped.

He ran up to walker and was held back by two assassins.  
"Let go" he said in a voice that was not his. In a voice that was not human.

They hesitated and that hesitation cost them. Alex lashed out and both men were knocked unconscious before any body could blink. He ran up to walker but was met by all the other assassins other than the ones taking care of yassen.

Alex was a killing machine and no assassin could get close before they were too knocked unconscious.  
He was a killing machine.  
A weapon built by Ian, professionalised by scorpia and used by mi6. He was the best of the best.

Within minutes the assassins were down and he walked quiet calmly towards walker. He saw the fear in walkers eyes but he couldn't care. He wasn't human. He had no emotion.

He knocked walker unconscious and was about to deliver the killing blow when his hand was stopped.  
"Let go of me" he spoke  
"Little Alex don't do this"  
That voice sounded familiar to him but he couldn't remember. Nevertheless he clung to it and he used it to bring himself back to reality. To humanity.  
"Yassen" the voice was a whisper and a plea

"Little Alex do not do this. Do not let your anger take control. You are better than this. You are not a machine. You are a human. Do not let your body do what your heart will regret"

Alex turned around to look at yassen and was met with eyes that radiated worry and concern and love and warmth and affection and everything Alex had been deprived off.  
There were tears in his Alex's eyes and he couldn't fight them back. He couldn't fight anymore.  
One lonely tear formed at the corner of his eye.

"Yassen please help me" his voice was broken. "Please. I don't want to do this anymore." The lonely tear began its journey down the side of Alex's face "Yassen it hurts everywhere please make it stop. I don't want to be hurt anymore" he didn't care  
that he was begging. That he sounded like a child. He just wanted this to end.  
"Please yassen please make the hurt stop. It's everywhere. I don't want to do it anymore. I want it to end. I don't want to be alone anymore."  
He was losing his eyesight and his brain was starting to heart. His muscles were screaming in agony and his heart was being ripped to pieces.  
"Yassen I want to see mum and dad again." Another tear joined the first one, but he Wasnt crying. He was remembering. He was trapped in his own world. "I want to see uncle Ian and Jack. I don't want to be alone anymore" his voice was becoming quieter  
and quieter as he struggled for consciousness.  
"Yassen please don't leave me alone. Please don't go away. Yassen please"  
As those final words exited his lips, Alex fell into the blissful unconsciousness and into yassens arms.

Yassens eyes where burning with tears and the sight of Alex infront of him. He didn't want to leave Alex but he knew he had to. Alex could have a family with the soldiers here. They would take care of him. He didn't want to leave the Alex but he  
knew he had to. He lay Alex on the ground carefully.  
He then kneeled down next to Alex.  
"Alex I'm so sorry for doing this to you. I'm sorry for sending you to scorpia. I'm sorry for not taking care of you properly. I'm sorry that I am going to leave you." He knew Alex was unconscious but yassen didn't care. Yassen's months in custody seem  
to take an effect on his brain. Every single second he spent in prison he spent thinking about Alex.  
"I love you Alex" he whispered to the boy

He turned to face the soldiers and they were shocked to see the worlds best assassin with bloodshot eyes.

The assassin then spoke making eye contact with each and every single one of them.  
"Take care of Alex for me. He is safe here but he needs a family. Tell him I'm sorry" yassens voice cracked slightly but he quickly recovered. " tell him I'm sorry that I couldn't do it my self and that I don't want to go." He paused before carrying on.  
"Tell him that I will miss him."  
Then all emotion was wiped from the face and the assassin escaped into the shadows of the night, disappearing of the face of the earth for one last time.


	5. Chapter 5

5  
The soldiers stayed were they were, silence hung in the air paralysing them. What they just witnessed was nothing small. What they just witnessed was impossible.  
They remained still for minutes which felt like hours. No one breaking the thick silence that hung like a death sentence.

The sergeant was the first to recover but he was the one who was the most shocked because he and he alone out of all the soldiers knew the boys age. The sheer impossibility of the situation was impossible to comprehend but he knew as the leader  
that it was up to him to get the soldiers back in line. They were after all soldiers. They were taught to keep their heads in these situations.

He managed to take out his pocket knife and cut the rope. He then stood up startling the soldiers out of their thoughts.

He then proceeded to help the soldier next to him and they helped others and within minutes everyone was up.  
"Soldiers, I understand that this is a complicated situation and I assure you that I too will be spending my nights thinking about this but right now we have around 20 scorpia assassins in this room and one passed out soldier." He refrained from saying  
cub "Our immediate attention turns to securing the assassins and getting the soldier to the infirmary.

The soldiers quickly came over their shock and began to move.

Within 3 hours all the assassins were taken by mi6 for interrogation. The sergeant did not tell them about cub or about gregorovich. He was not sure what to make of the whole situation and decided to keep it between the camp.  
Also cub was in the infirmary. The doctors said that cub was suffering from mental and physical exhaustion and his unwillingness to wake up will keep him in this semi-coma semi-unconsciousness for as long as he wants to. When cub is ready to wake up he  
will. The doctors can't do anything to help. It's all up to cub.

Now the soldiers were awaiting his orders in the mess hall and for the first time the sergeant was in complete loss. Never in his entire career has he even expected such thing to happen. He was glad none of the soldiers knew Cubs age. That would have  
been very difficult.  
Now they were waiting in the mess hall for answers. Answers he did not have. He decided to go through it in his head.  
Cub is an mi6 agent. The sergeant knew that. That's the only thing which made the slightest bit of sense.

Cub trained with scorpia. That had completely thrown him off. Cub was a spy who had trained with scorpia. The sergeant wasn't going to lie. That made cub a potential threat. But the sergeant didn't want to think like that. Cub was one of his soldiers.  
And over the years the sergeant had become to think of his soldiers as his children. If cub was a threat then...  
The sergeant didn't want to think about that. He didn't know what to tell his soldiers , should he tell then to be wary of cub. He couldn't do that, not when the mention of cub brought the image of the lost and Broken boy who had tears streaming down  
his face. The sergeant, a soldier, hardened by war, most feared man on this camp, felt his heart break at the sight of the Broken boy begging for help. He couldn't warn his soldiers about a boy.

But then again, cub was a trained assassin and spy. (He didn't want to think about age at the moment). He could tell his soldiers to be careful when around cub ( if cub woke up). And then came yassen gregorovich: the biggest mystery of all. The worlds  
best assassin was used as black mail to loosen Cubs tongue. What cub was hiding wasn't something small, it was god damn huge: being a fricking assassin, so how important must gregorovich be to cub? How the hell do they even know each other in the  
first place?  
And how could the sergeant forget the cub that knocked 20 assassins unconscious. That cub was not human. The eyes held no warmth, no trace of humanity. He was a machine. A whirlpool of destruction. A killing machine. That cub was dangerous and lethal.  
Maybe he should warn the soldiers, thought the sergeant.  
Then the image of the weak and defenceless cub came to mind and the sergeant was right back at square one.

No more time to think. The sergeant has to face his soldiers.

He entered the mess hall and all conversations were immediately cut off as the soldiers stood to attention.  
"At ease soldiers"  
The soldiers relaxed.  
"Now soldiers, I understand that the events of today have left many, if not all of us, shocked, confused etc and I assure you that I too am trying to wrap my head around what happened. For this reason I believe that training tomorrow will be pointless  
as minds would not be focused so I am giving you soldiers tomorrow the day off to get your thoughts together.  
Any questions?" The sergeant knew that the soldiers would not have been surprised at the fact that they were having tomorrow off. They already were at the limit of being surprised. Right now all their minds were on one specific soldier who lay unconscious  
in the infirmary.  
"Permission to speak sir" snake asked  
"Granted"  
" how is cub sir?" Snake asked Worry lacing his words  
The sergeant considered his words before answering.  
"Cub is in the infirmary. His situation is stable, however he is still unconscious and the doctors are unable to say when he is expected to wake up."  
Silence Hung in the sure for a moment before another soldier, Bear, spoke  
"Permission to speak sir"  
"Granted"  
"With all due respect sir, we just found out that one of the soldiers is a spy for SO, has been trained by scorpia and has a relationship with the worlds most feared assassin. Doesn't that make cub dangerous?"  
The rest of the soldiers looked down and sifted their feet uncomfortable. The sergeant could tell that, just like him, this was the centre of their worries.  
He remembered the dangerous cub and the broken cub and he pondered how he was going to answer this question.

"Innocent until proven guilty" the sergeant began "that's how I think the saying goes. No matter what else cub is, to us he is a soldier first and until we can find anything to suggest otherwise then he is innocent.  
Like I previously said, at the moment cub is unconscious so their is no danger but we will keep an extra eye on him in case anything happens. But other than that their is nothing we can do"  
The soldiers let jay sink in before once again the silence was broken, this time by Lynx.  
"Permission to speak sir"  
"Granted"  
"Why is cub here sir? Surely he is too young. And he hasn't even passed selection!"  
"Cub is here for training" the sergeant hated the way the half-truth rolled of his tongue.  
The soldiers looked unconvinced and the sergeant hated lying to them.  
"And protection" he added. Let MI6 got to hell.  
"Permission to speak sir" jaguar asked  
"Granted"  
"Protection from who sir?"  
"I wasn't told soldier. It is not my place to ask this question and neither is it yours. From who is none of our concern"  
The soldier nodded his head, reprimanded.  
"Any more questions"  
Silence  
"Good. You are dismissed"  
The sergeant paused for a moment then spoke again.  
"K-unit stay behind"  
5


	6. Chapter 6

6  
After the other soldiers left, k-unit stepped closer to the sergeant  
"Wolf, snake and eagle" the sergeant addressed  
"Sir"  
"As you are Cubs unit, I decided that it is in your best interest to have more insight on Cubs current status, medically."  
Wolf and eagle nodded and snake looked relieved.  
"Currently, cub is quite literally on the line between life and death"  
A flash of shock passed over their faces before they professionally covered it.  
"He is in a semi-coma but the problem is, it is not medical related. It's physiological, that's why the doctors are in complete loss of what to do. They have come up with the theory that he is in a deep sleep because his mind is fighting a battle, live  
or die."  
The sergeant paused contemplating, before continuing " I don't know and I don't pretend to know what the soldier has been through before he came here and I don't expect you too either. But I want you to remember that he is a member of your unit and it  
is your duty to treat him as such. It is fully understandable that after" the sergeant paused again, trying to find the right words "today's events you may distrust cub and such but remember he is first and foremost your teammate."  
The soldiers nodded but didn't say anything.  
"You have tomorrow off and I suggest you think about your next motives. Dismissed."

The soldiers saluted and the sergeant left. Moments later, k-unit followed suit.

Wolf led his unit back to their hut and for the first time the camp was in silence. They entered their hut and the time read 1:03. Seeing as they had tomorrow off, they decided to try and understand the events of this evening.  
They each sat on their respective bunks and eagle was the first to break the silence.  
"What the hell happened?"  
That was the question wasn't it.  
After moments of contemplation, wolf spoke " we could deal with this like when we were in Iraq. Go through everything that happened and everything we know, step by step, until we can make sense of it."  
The other members nodded and the lateness of the night was forgotten as they ventured on the their quest to solve the mystery known as cub. Little did they know, they didn't even have 5% of the story.  
"So" wolf began "who wanted to go first"  
"Cub was here roughly a year and a half ago. Trained with us for 10 days and left. He was good, amazing in fact and managed to keep up with us even though he was a first timer. He remained silent even though we bullied him. He kicked wolf out of a plane  
and then disappeared " eagle started and wolf picked up the story scowling slightly at the mention of the incident.  
"A month or so later, I saw him snowboarding down a mountain on an ironing board. He then led us through a private school which apparently had an evil head teacher. I got shot for him and he drove a snowmobile into a helicopter effectively killing the  
head teacher and saving the world"  
His other unit members stared at him but snake decided to pick up the story.  
"A year and a half later he comes back to camp to train without having gone through selection. His name, age, medical history are all classified. He has a damn bullet wound right over his heart and is covered in torture marks. All his relatives are dead.  
He is always on guard and He shows sign of ptsd. First seen when he lost control in combat training. He has nightmares and suffers from flashbacks. He is a damn good shot and does instinctive firing which is taught to assassins mainly. He lost control  
when shooting and thought we were enemies. He managed to knock wolf unconscious with ease."  
Eagle swiftly carried on " cub ran away and before we could go after him we were captured and woke up in the mess hall. Up until then everything made some sort of sense. After that I can't explain anything"  
"The lets go through what we know" snake suggested.  
"The assassins today were here for him"  
"The assassins are from scorpia"  
"Scorpia want revenge on cub"  
"Scorpia want to bring down mi6 using cub"  
"Cub works for mi6"  
"Cub has apparently trained with scorpia"  
"Explains why he does instinctive firing but the whole idea is just so absurd"  
They all nodded.  
"Cub knows Gregorovich" snake said  
Eagle snorted. "That's an understatement."  
"Scorpia managed to use gregorovich to blackmail cub into talking. I would say that they more than just knew each other if cub was forced to spill his secrets" there was an unexplainable bitterness in eagles tone.  
Wolf noticed but decided to ignore it.  
"Do you remember when cub attacked the assassins?"  
Snake scoffed. "How could we forget? I have never seen a human so... humanless. He knocked 20 trained assassins unconscious with the speed of a machine and the agility and grace of a cat. There was nothing human in him."  
Silence hung in the air.  
"Until" eagle began "gregorovich stopped him. The same way the fighting image of cub was embedded in our minds, I don't think we will ever be able to forgot the cub that begged the assassin to stay with him. That wanted all that's going on to end. Cub  
obviously has little left but it doesn't make sense that an assassin to be the only one. An assassin!"  
"Do you remember when gregorovich was apologising to cub?"  
"Or when gregorovich told us to take care of cub?"  
"It seemed like gregorovich was Cubs some sort of guardian angel. Who in the world has an assassin as a guardian angel?"  
"Did you hear what walker said before cub attacked?" Snake asked. " walker seemed to be saying that cub has no parent. Killed by his godfather." The more they remembered the less it made sense.  
Wolf carried on. "Walker also said that gregorovich killed Cubs uncle. What kind of relationship does that mean they have?"

Silence hung in the air. There seemed to be a question they were all avoiding.

"What about us?" Eagle asked.  
"What about us?" Wolf questioned eagle.  
"What is our relationship with cub?" The question hung in the air.

Cub was an mi6 agent who was trained by scorpia. It doesn't exactly spark trust does it?  
But then wolf remembered what the sergeant said.  
"Cub is first and foremost a soldier" wolf echoed the words. "He is our teammate. Part of our unit." The words part of our family were unsaid but clear all the same. "We treat him like one of our own. We have only heard what he was forced to say and we  
cannot come to conclusions about him without having heard the full story. He might be a spy and an assassin but he is also a fellow soldier and we need to treat him as such." Eagle and snake nodded their heads to show their full agreement. If they  
weren't professional soldiers they would be giving round of applauses.  
Wolf carried on. "He is unconscious Now and we don't know when he will wake up but until then we treat him how we wouldn't treat any other unit mate. We go visit him, we check up on him. Ask the doctors how he is doing. Once he is wakes up " if he is  
wakes up hung the the air "we can question him. Until then we can't do anything."  
The nods of heads was all that was needed. Minutes of silent contemplation later, the lights were turned off and the three soldiers turned to a thought filled sleep.  
6 


	7. Chapter 7

7  
Alex was getting bored.  
He didn't know when he woke up. It may have been minutes, hours, days or weeks ago.  
He didn't know.  
He remembered waking up into nothingness surrounded by nothing. And he remembered nothing. Only his name. He didn't remember his age or his parents or his friends of his family. He didn't know if he had any siblings or if he had a girlfriend. He had forgotten  
everything but his name. He couldn't even remember his second name.  
He tried analysing his surroundings, maybe they would give him a clue , but you can't analyse nothing.  
After what seemed like days of just staring into nothingness, a path appeared infront of Alex. Normal people would have taken this as a sign from heaven and to quench their boredom they would have taken the path without thinking. But not Alex. He built  
with the instinct to be suspicious of everything.  
He stared at the path for who knows how long, but curiosity finally one over and he took the path.

He walked along the path for what felt like days and still nothing. Not for the first time he wondered about his past and how and why he ended up in this place.  
He was jarred out of his thought by movement to his right. He looked and saw two people who looked familiar.  
His parents.  
The memory came back to him sharp and clear. He remembered them. John and Helen rider.  
Rider  
That was his surname.  
He wanted to go to them but something stopped him. He didn't want to get of the path just yet.  
He looked to his left and saw a graveyard with 4 gravestones, John, Helen, Ian, Jack.  
The memories came back to him. Ian, his uncle, the person you raised him.  
And Jack, his housekeeper, guardian, best friend, sister.  
But all these people were dead.  
He looked to his right again and saw all four of them standing there looking at him with.. With.. Love.  
He wanted nothing more than to go to them but he wasn't ready to step of the path. He carried on walking and his family walked with him but off the path. Nothing more showed on the right hand side but the left hand side began to fill with images.  
He saw the bank and remembered he was a spy. With that realisation, came images of the missions he had been on. He saw his missions, each one coming back with stark clarity. He remembered the pain after every mission. Cornwall, his first one which was  
originally his uncles. Point blank , where he first faced the fears of torture. Skeleton key, where he watched a man who loved him shoot himself because of alex. He remembered eagle strike and Sabina. The memories of Sabina were told strong. How she  
refused to believe him at first. Then kidnapped. Then left for America. Then when he left them after they neglected him.  
He saw yassen and his brain went into overdrive.  
He remembered scorpia. His father. His attempted assassination of Jones. His fight in the air balloon. When he was sniped.  
He remembered going into space  
He remembered his godfather and what he has done.  
He remembered Desmond and the crocodiles.  
He remembered his final mission when he was forced to watch his best friend and sister die. He remembered shooting his clone.  
He remembered everything.  
And he wished he hadn't.  
The left side had nothing worth going back to. It was filled with pain and nightmares and manipulation and fear.  
He longed for the nothingness in the beginning. He wanted to forget it all. They were too much for him.  
He looked to the right side and saw his family whole and alive. He could go and join them.  
He made to take a step of the path towards the right.

"His heart rate is going down. We're loosing him" the doctor spoke in a calm town filled with worry.  
"Start on the life saving techniques" the doctor ordered and the nurses got to work.  
K-unit stood there shocked, watching doctor and nurses frantically trying to stabilise cub.  
They had woken up the next morning at 8am cherishing their day off but their thought were only on one person, cub. They quickly went to have breakfast and then went to see cub in the infirmary.

Eagle would never admit it, but he was a bit anxious about seeing cub. He didn't know what to expect.  
When he saw cub, he was shocked. Not because cub looked strange, but the exact opposite. He had never seen cub look so..so... Relaxed. Eagle hadn't realised how before cub was always so tense and anxious and always looking over his shoulder but  
when compared to him now...  
After a night of full sleep, the bags under Cubs eyes had reduced and for the first time, eagle realised how young cub looked. There were no eyes that belonged to older men which held more wisdom then possible. There was no longer the mask that covered  
his face, that hid his emotions.  
Cub looked so young.  
With startling clarity, eagle remembered yesterday's events. It just seemed wrong. How can a person that looked to be 18/19 be forced to go through all that. How can a teenager go through so much pain and sorrow, to seek refuge in an assassin. How can  
a teenager be able to defeat 20 trained assassins. Cub should be in college, living his life, getting drunk, holing up with girls, not lying down in a hospital bed in a SAS camp walking a fine line between life and death. Anger took over his emotions  
and he wanted nothing more than to just punch a wall.

Snake sensed Eagles anger and felt it too, their protective instincts were screaming at them. A teenager, forced to go through so much.

K-unit just stood in the hospital room looking at cub, each wrapped in their own thoughts, nobody willing to break the silence.  
That's when the heart monitor began to show danger signs. The pulse began to slow down. Doctors and nurses swarmed into the room pushing k unit aside and began trying to stabilise cub.

Snake joined in the rescue and started doing compressions.  
Eagle walked up to cub and put a hand on Cubs head "Don't you dare die on us cub. You owe us a bunch of answers and I will kill you if you die"

Alex was about to step off the path and walk to his family when a voice stopped him.  
"Cub"  
Memories came back to him of k-unit.  
He remembered the feeling of friendship he felt with them. He remembered the care they showed him. He remembered the voice in his head telling him that they do care.  
He remembered eagle and his Alex rider stories. The enjoyment in Eagles eyes.  
He remembered the concern snake showed over him and his injuries. Never pity, always care and concern.  
He remembered wolf and the change in the man from the bully to the friend.

Maybe there was something on the left side.

But could he do it.  
Could he go back to all that pain.  
He looked to the right side in longing for his parents and his uncle and his friend.  
But they seemed to be looking him in a different way. They each showed love for him but there was something else.  
How would Jack feel if he just left that world. She always taught him never to leave without saying goodbye. She would not agree to him just coming like that.  
What about his uncle who always taught him never give up. Never to show weakness. He would be disappointed if Alex just gave up and took the easy way out.  
He didn't know his parents but he felt that they would want him to carry on with what that world and keep on going on until the very end.  
He would always end up with his family in the very end but he won't stay with the other side forever. Maybe he should go to the left side and carry on with his life. Maybe he would be able to find something good in that world if he just tried.

Alex took a step away from the right side towards the left but he just couldn't bring himself to just go to the left.  
But he couldn't stay in this limbo forever. He had to make a decision.  
His heart wanted the left but he was stubborn. He was stubborn since the day he was born.  
Alex took a deep breaths and took a running leap to the left side.

And woke up with a gasp

Before he fell asleep

7


	8. Chapter 8

8  
After cub was stabilised, k-unit left.  
They went for a jog to loosen up their tense muscles and then they went to the mess hall to see all the other units and were surprised to see a lot of commotion.  
That's when they realised one of the units have come back from leave after one of their missions, so of course everyone wants to find out the details and what better day that on their free day.  
It seemed like yesturdays events were forgotten.  
"Calm down everyone" shouted wasp, leader of x-unit. "We can't tell you everything, of course but what we can tell you won't be heard over all this noise"  
That effectively shut the soldiers up.  
The soldiers settled down to listen to the mission  
"We were stationed in Australia this time round" wasp began " and I am telling you that it was the weirdest mission yet."

"Yeah right" interrupted bear "weirder than k-unit when they saw a person snowboarding down a mountain on an ironing board"  
A couple of laughs and "oh yeahs" went round but k-unit shifted uncomfortably.

"Yes definitely weirder" replied tiger, the medic of x-unit " because the first thing we did was pull in a module from a space rocket from the ocean. I know that's weird because what was it doing in the middle of the ocean and how the hell is it even  
possible for a module to get there. There were no space take offs any where near there but that wasn't the weirdest thing.  
The weirdest thing was that inside the module was a teenager."  
The silence came and then the storm as the soldiers began to voice how stupid it was and the impossibility.  
"Don't you think we already know how impossible it was? And if we hadn't seen it for ourselves then we wouldn't have believed it but there he was a teenager no older than 17 inside a space rocket in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."  
There was shocked silence which was broken by the opening of the door and a nurse rushed in.  
"K-unit. Cub has woken"  
Snake eagle and wolf stood up so fast and walked out leaving one confused unit and many others to explain.

Wolf eagle and snake ran to the infirmary and were met inside Cubs room by the doctor.  
"How is he doc?" Eagle asked  
The doctor glared at Eagle for the nickname "he has woke up and can officially be declared alive but he was awake for merely seconds before he fell asleep. He should be waking up any minute now and as his unit, you have the right to be with him but I  
warn you that he might be a bit confused after his psychological battle so don't make him talk too much.  
He is not on any medication at the moment since we saw no need but he is still strapped to the heart monitor just incase, he should be in the infirmary for about 3 days and then he is free to leave.  
However it has not escaped my attention that he has many scars and a bullet wound. He doesn't seem to be taking any medication for it even though it seems recent so I have prescribed him some painkillers for it. Snake make sure he takes them.  
You may see him now."

When k-unit entered the room, cub was awake.  
"Hey cub" eagle practically bounced over to him sitting on the nearby chair " you gave us quite a scare you know"  
Cub looked at eagle with a raised eyebrow but said nothing.  
"Have you lost your voice or something cub? No hi, or hello or sorry for giving the doctors a heart attack earlier today?"  
"Hi" cub said  
The grin on Eagles face stretched so wide, it almost fell of his face.  
"He speaks!" Eagle declared but was cut off by a hit from wolf over the head.  
"The kid just woke up, cut him some slack"  
Cub glared at wolf "I'm not a kid"  
"Sure you are" eagle said with amusement.  
Alex decided to ignore this and focus on some more important matters  
"How long was I out for?"  
Snake counted then answered "about 15 hours"  
Alex was shocked "that long?" He had never been out for more than a Couple of hours. He prided himself on his stubbornness to resist unconsciousness.  
"What do you mean "that long"? We were expecting you to be out for a couple of days." Snake frustratedly answered.  
Alex huffed like a teenager his age "why?"  
Wolf looked at cub confused before it dawned on him "you don't know what happened do you?  
This time Alex looked confused " I thought I was knocked unconscious in combat training"  
This time the whole of k unit looked confused.  
"Don't you remember what happened yesterday?"  
The truth was, Alex didn't. Whatever happened before he was knocked unconscious Was a blur.  
"No." He admitted "I just assumed we were in combat training and one of you knocked me out. Though now you mention it I don't feel any bruises. So what happened yesterday?"  
"You honestly don't remember?"  
Alex was about to reply when everything came back to him.  
"Oh no. No no no no no" he repeated. It couldn't have happened. Scorpia couldn't have come. The soldiers couldn't have seen them. The soldiers couldn't have seen yassen. The soldiers couldn't have heard what he said. The soldiers shouldn't have seen him  
when he fought. They shouldn't have seen when he was weak. They couldn't have heard what he was forced to say.  
Alex looked at k-unit not knowing what to expect. They knew he worked for mi6. They knew he trained with scorpia. He was thankful they didn't know anything else but they shouldn't have known anything. Things were supposed to stay hidden.  
"Cub" snake said seeing the way realisation hit cub. The transformation was something honestly spectacular. From confusion to realisation to horror.  
"We wanted to ask you about what happened yesterday."  
Alex was shocked. He expected anger from k-unit. Not... This.  
"What's there to ask about?"  
Eagle punched Alex in the shoulder in a teasing way.  
"What's there to ask about?! Are you serious. Scorpia come for revenge on you, they bring the worlds best assassin gregorovich to blackmail you, you say your an mi6 agent you has trained with scorpia. You then knock 20 assassins unconscious without  
even thinking and then you fall unconscious. And you say "what's there to ask about?! "  
Alex rubbed his neck sheepishly "well..."  
Wolf decided to jump in "since it is our right as your unit to get answers, we will ask questions and you will answer. And none of this classified nonsense. We want answers"  
Alex knew that wolf was right and the thing was after his "enlightenment" during sleep, he didn't want to lie to his teammates anymore. Of course he wasn't going to give away any unnecessary information. He will just try to answer what they ask. Nothing  
more. Nothing less.  
Alex nodded his head.  
Wolf was shocked that cub agreed so easily but knew an opportunity when he saw one.  
"Ok first question. Do you actually work for mi6"  
Cub thought for a second before answering. "I used to work for mi6" he emphasised on he word used and the others picked up on it.  
"Used?" Eagle asked "like not anymore?"  
Alex nodded.  
"Why not?"  
Alex grinned.  
"I quit"  
"Okayyy. " snake decided it was enough of that "next question. Is it true that you trained with scorpia?"  
Cubs face closed off completely but he still nodded. The action was done with such reluctance but it was done nonetheless.  
"Can you please explain how you managed that?"  
Alex really didn't want to lie to them but he could hardly say that the worlds best assassins' dying wish was for him to go to scorpia but then that same assassin was discovered alive. That will make more questions than answered.  
"I didn't know who they were. I stumbled upon them and they managed to manipulate me into joining them. They trained me but when I realised that they were not who I thought they was, I left"  
He wasn't lying, he was just twisting the truth slightly.  
"You left?" Wolf was unconvinced. You don't just leave scorpia.  
Alex nodded.  
"You just stumbled upon them" eagle was even less convinced  
Alex nodded again.  
"Okay. Next question. How do you know gregorovich?"  
At this Alex started chuckling, the story was hilarious.  
"He saved my like a couple of times" he managed before laughing again.  
"He saved your life?" Snake questioned.  
"A couple of time?" Eagle carried on.  
Alex nodded. His neck was going to break if he carried on nodding so much.  
"Explain" wolf demanded.  
"I was going to die a couple of times and yassen saved me" the vagueness of the answers were really getting on k-units nerves.  
"If you wanted better answers you have to ask better questions" Alex pointed out.  
There was silence for a couple of seconds before snake snapped his fingers.  
"I remembered something. That guy-what's his name- walker. He said that gregorovich killed you uncle. Is that true?"  
"Um yes" Alex answered rubbing his neck. He knew his relationship with yassen was complicated but explaining it complicated it even more.  
"So he killed your uncle and saved your life a couple of times" eagle summed up.  
"Yeah basically"  
"Why'd he kill your uncle?" Wolf asked  
"He was payed too"  
Eagle face palmed himself  
"Why your uncle?" Wolf asked stressing the your.  
"My uncle was a spy"  
Silence  
"Wow cub, this spying business runs in the family" eagle joked  
"Don't I know it" muttered Alex.  
The next question was by snake "why does scorpia want revenge on you cub?"  
Alex took a moment to contemplate his answer. He could hardly tell them that he took down three of their operations and killed most of their heads. He settled for the relatively normal answer.  
"They didn't like it when I left"  
"Was this the first time they tried to kill you?"  
"No"  
"Did they give you the bullet wound?"  
"Yes"  
"Damn cub, you were assassinated, how are you still alive?"  
"I'm lucky"  
"I hardly call it lucky that you were assassinated"  
Alex's grin stretched across the whole width of his face. "luck of the devil. Runs in the family" the way cub said it made it seem like he was proud of it.  
"That's some serious luck to keep you alive with scorpia after you."  
"I know it is" the grin grew wider.  
"But isn't it weird that they would go to such extent just to kill you. It is worth it"  
"Well luck of the devil comes in two ways. For it to work you have to first be in an unlucky situation." Alex chucked and eagle couldn't hold back his own. Laughter was infectious.  
"You can't get any unluckiest than having scorpia on your tail" snake pointed out smiling slightly  
Suddenly cub stopped laughing as a he remembered something.  
"What happened to the assassins?"  
Wolf answered "mi6 took them for interrogation."  
"And yassen?"  
"He ?"  
Alex took a deep breath. He knew he was going to regret asking, but he just had to "Did he... Did he say anything before he left?"  
The way cub said it, so hopeful, so innocent, like he was asking if he could have an ice cream not about a world class assassin.  
"Umm yeah" snake said after moments of silence.  
Cub perked up "what?"  
"He said he was sorry that he couldn't take care of you and that he had to leave. He told us to take care of you, said you needed a family. He also said he will miss you. Would you mind explaining what that meant?"  
Snakes words hung in the air and Cubs shoulders slumped. One the one side, he felt a strange feeling of happiness that he still had one person left in the world who looked out for him but on the other side that person had left him. He knew that yassen  
would have left but it hurt to have his thoughts spoken aloud. He didn't want to face another neglect but he knew he had to.  
"Cub, is gregorovich related to you?" Wolf asked. He didn't understand this relationship and it was frustrating.  
"No" the answer was short and clipped. They were back to the beginning.  
"Then how do you know him?" Eagle asked. They had come so far they weren't going to stop.  
Alex didn't have it in him to think of half truths and twisted lies.  
"He knew my father"  
Eagle had only one thought. This kids family was seriously messed up.  
"Your father?"  
Alex nodded  
"But your father is dead"  
Alex nodded, though he didn't seem to be upset. It seemed as if he was going into his own world.  
" and how does your father know gregorovich?"  
"I can't answer that"  
"Why not?"  
"I agreed to answer questions about yesterday. My father had nothing to do with yesterday." The winced inwardly at the lie. His father had everything to do with yesterday.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes before the doctor walked in.  
"Ah cub, your awake I see. Good good. You gave us quiet a scare though it is quite surprising you woke up so early. Your quite stubborn I see. Do you have any questions?" The doctor asked  
"Only one"  
"Shoot"  
"When can I leave?"  
If the doctor was as surprised by the question as k-unit he didn't show it.  
"Well 3 days should be enough-"  
"Can I leave now?"  
"Certainly not"  
"Why not?"  
"Because I said so"  
"Can I leave this afternoon?"  
"3days"  
"Tonight"  
"Two days"  
"1 day"  
"1 and a half"  
Alex thought about it before nodding.  
"Deal"  
The doctor walked out muttering to himself "did I seriously just debate over a patients stay? I must be getting old"

After the doctor left, k-unit turned to cub  
"How the hell did you-"  
"I can't believe you just-"  
"That was impossible-"  
"Stop this" wolf ordered.  
Eagle spoke. "Cub how the hell did you manage to convince doc to let you leave early"  
"I used my amazing people skills" Alex said with a wining smile.  
Snake chocked on his own saliva.  
"Nobody, and I mean nobody has ever managed to leave early and believe me many have tried. How did you manage it?"  
"I was lucky" Alex said and eagle couldn't help it. He burst out laughing.  
8 


	9. Chapter 9

9  
The next day cub was released from the infirmary by a very annoyed doctor and made his way back to k units hut. He was told to 'go easy' for the next few days.  
He was also given some medication for his billet sound and some scars. Not that he would be taking them. Oh how he hated drugs. Over the past year, Alex had developed some major reactions to drugs and the effects are unpleasant, to day the least. The  
simplest way to describe it would be that the drugs play around with his brain a bit.  
He was jarred out of his thought by coming face to face the door.  
How the hell did I get here so fast? He thought.  
He opened the door and was met with 3 shocked soldiers. Seriously, this was getting boring, whenever they saw him, they were shocked.  
"What in the world cub?" Snake shouted "you were supposed to wait for bus to come and get you."  
Alex smirked inwardly "I appreciate your concern and I understand that I am a very important person, but I do not need 3 body guards to escort me from one place to another"  
I thinks it's safe to say that the 3 soldiers practically fell of their beds from shock.

Seeing it wise, Alex decided to change the subject "so did I miss anything important while trapped in the hospital"  
Eagle couldn't resist the urge to talk "yeah, x-unit came back from leave after their mission in Australia"  
Alex mentally froze, his luck wasn't that bad was it? There could have been many other units.  
"Oh yeah?"  
"Yeah," eagle couldn't resist the urge to tell a story " it was a strange mission. The first thing they did was rescue a teenager from a space module that had landed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean"  
Alex's stomach dropped, his luck really was that bad "seriously?"  
"Yeah I know, it crazy man. But you could go and ask them yourself, we have dinner now"  
Dread settled over Alex  
"I'm really not that hungry"  
"Sure you are cub, you just came out of hospital, everybody has a huge appetite after hospital"  
Alex couldn't help but agree "no seriously I'm not hungry"  
"Cub"snake warned "you just came out of the infirmary and we are restarting training. You have to eat"  
Alex realised that his attempts were futile  
"Fine" he sighed

K-unit made their way to the hall and Alex was glad that x-unit were not their. Maybe he wouldn't run into them.  
He should have known that his luck would not hold out.

When x-unit entered, eagle called them over  
"Hey guys"  
X unit sat down next to k unit and Alex tried his best to hide in the shadows, training at scorpia helped sometimes.  
"So" wasp began "is cub out of the infirmary yet"  
Snake look confused "yeah his is and he is sitting right here, he turned and was faced with a teenager concealed by the shadows  
"Cub what is wrong with you" snake said exasperated, "can't you do anything normal for once"  
Cub turned to glare at snake but realised his mistake after the sharp intakes of breath.  
"No way." Tiger managed "No god damn way. Wasp can you believe this its him"  
Wasp just shook his head and carried on staring. How was this even possible?  
The mess hall suddenly became very silent.  
"Who's him?" Wolf asked, though he began to have some sort of idea.  
"It's the kid we saved from the space module." Wasp said barely believing it.

(The next part has been cut out due to incoherent and inappropriate language but it is safe to say that all hades broke loose and cub was attacked with questions)

Finally wolf managed to regain some self worth. "EVERYBODY SHUT IT"  
Silence.  
Wolf then turned to cub. "Cub would you please explain to us what you were doing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in a DAMN SPACE MODULE" his anger breaking at the last words  
"Yes" cub answered  
"Yes what?"  
"Yes I do mind"  
"Cub" wolf warned  
"Wolf" Cub mocked  
"JUST TELL US THE GOD DAMN REASON"  
"No"  
"Why not?"  
"Because"  
"Because what?"  
"Because it is none of your business and I would really appreciate if you took your extra large nose out of my business"  
With that Alex stood up, dumped his tray and walked out.  
Silence.  
"Well that went well" eagle broke the silence.  
20 soldiers turned to glare at him.  
The sergeant walked in.  
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. GET YOUR SELVES OUT OF HERE AND GO DO SOME TRAINING"  
The soldiers jumped to attention and practically run out.


	10. Chapter 10

10  
The next 2 days went by in a blur with no incident. That was until snake realised that a certain somebody wasnt taking his medicine.  
It happened when the K unit had just finished all their exercises for the day and were sitting down in their cabin playing a game of poker.  
That was when snake noticed a sealed packet of tablets.  
"Cub?" Snake asked  
"Hmm?" Cub responded focusing on his cards.  
"Have you been taking your pills?"  
Cub looked up sharply "yeah why?"  
Snake got up and brought the packet of pills.  
"Because it sure as hell doesn't look like it"  
"Ohh busted" whispered eagle.  
Alex glared at him before turning to glare and snake.  
"So what?" He said and he folded his arms looking defiant.  
"What haven't you been taking your pills?"  
"Because I don't need them"  
"That's not for you to decide"  
"Yes it is"  
Wolf and eagle watched the exchange like a tennis match and could clearly see the usually calm snake loosing his temper.  
Snake opened the packer and made to give one to cub but cub refused.  
"Take it "  
"No"  
"Take it"  
"No"  
"Take it cub, or so god help me I shall force it down your throat"  
Cub remained as defiant as ever.  
Snake turned to look at eagle and wolf  
"Would you hold him down?"  
"Our pleasure" they replied.

Alex was not stupid. He knew when the situation was hopeless. And when faced with 3 trained SAS soldiers who he didn't want to hurt, he knew that he was going to lose. But that didn't stop him from trying. He remembered the last time he took his pills  
and and shuddered in horror. He was never going to do that again.

Wolf and eagle grabbed cub and pushed him into the bed to make him easier to hold down.  
Snake then attempted to put the pill into Cubs mouth but it remained stubbornly shut.  
"Hold his nose" eagle suggested.  
Snake held Cubs nose and instead of the mouth opening, Cub's whole body went limp. Muscles relaxing, heart rate decreasing.  
"What the hell?" Shouted eagle.  
"He is trying to save oxygen. It's smart, I didn't expect him to do it this well but he will eventually run out of oxygen.

They waited in silence  
15 seconds  
30 seconds  
1 minute  
2 minute  
4 minutes  
6 minutes

"Damn it cub" snake let out, frustrating creeping into his tone. "Just breath. All you have to do is take he stupid pill, why are you refusing so much?"  
Alex didn't answer but 2 minutes later self preservation won and he was forced to breath.  
"Yes" eagle said punching the air.  
"No" Alex moaned  
"Why did you refuse so much?" Snake asked again  
Alex glared at him "because"  
"Because what?" Snake asked  
"Because I have a high sensitivity to drugs"  
"Come on cub, it can't be that bad?"  
"Yes it is"  
"What's the worst that could happens? The worst it you become slightly hyper and sometimes laugh uncontrollably, but that's the worst. It can't honestly be worse than that."  
15 minutes later, snake began eating his words.  
Alex felt the pain from his chest ease and he tried with all his might to fight the power of the stupid pills but he couldn't, he felt himself lose control of his mind and part of him welcomed the painlessness.

"Cub are you okay?" Asked snake. Snake had been watching cub for the past 15 minutes, wondering why cub was so set against taking his medicine. He watched as cub tried to fight the pills but they were in his system.  
Snake watched as Cubs face relaxed and he didn't know just how much pain cub was in until seeing Cubs expression. Would cub really prefer going through pain than taking his pills?  
Snake carried on watching cub. He watched as cub relaxed but then something else began to happen, Cubs eyes began to become slightly unfocused and glazed.  
"Cub are you okay?"  
Silence.  
"Cub?"  
The silence was unnerving.  
"Cub" he tried one more time  
"Hmm?" The sound came out of Cubs mouth but it sounded slightly slurred and light.

"Cub are you okay?"  
Cub nodded but his attention was fixed on a specific point on the wall.  
"What you looking at?" Wolf asked.  
"The wall"  
"Why?"  
Cub didn't respond and silence was held for moments before eagle snapped his fingers.  
"I knew this looked familiar"  
"What?" Wolf asked, rightly confused.  
"Cubs acting" at the still confused look he expanded " I had a cousin who also had high sensitivity to medicine and whenever he was forced to take it, he would start speaking random stuff. Me and some of my other cousins used to ask him questions that  
he would never answer truthfully but for some reason when he was on the pills he would answer them. And then the next morning he would not remember a single thing. They were like a truth serum"  
Snake nodded his head "it makes sense. Depending on the sensitivity, the pill could control some part of you. A bit like getting drunk" snake pondered for a moment "actually a lot like getting drunk. Of course without the damage to your health part."

Suddenly Eagles eyes lit "so you mean we could ask him any questions and he would answer truthfully, but won't remember a single thing tomorrow."  
Snake nodded his head "yes depending on his sensitivity."  
Eagle looked as if Christmas had come early. He turned to cub.  
"Cub?"  
"Hmm?"  
"How does your father know gregorovich?"  
Cub turned to face eagle but focused on the wall behind him.  
"My father?"  
"Yh"  
"He is dead" the voice sounded detached but not in a sad way, more like in a I-am-focused-on-something-more-important-now-go-away way.  
"Yh I know that but I want to know how your father knows gregorovich"  
"My dad trained yassen"  
"HE WHAT"  
"Who what?" Cubs voice began slowing down.  
Snake frowned in concentration. Cub seemed to have blanked out for a moment. He was curious about cub but knew that eagle would be the best person for extracting information.  
"Why did your dad train gregorovich?" Eagle asked. He knew that loosing his head when getting information was not the best thing to do.  
"Because my dad was a teacher"  
"What type of teacher?"  
Alex grinned lazily at the wall, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment.  
"An assassin teacher"  
"So your dad worked for scorpia?"  
Cub frowned at the wall as if he came across something that didn't make sense.  
"Why would my dad work for scorpia? He worked for mi6"  
"But you just said that your dad was an assassin teacher" eagle was getting more and more confused by the second.  
"Yes. Don't you know? My dad was a double agent for mi6 inside scorpia. Didn't you know that?"  
"Why would we know that?"  
Cubs frown deepened. And he yawned  
"I don't know"  
there was silence for a few moments and cub started to get ready for bed but then eagle seemed to remember something.  
"Cub how old are you ?"  
Cub stopped halfway through laying down.  
"How old?"  
"Yh"  
"Why do you want to know?"  
"I'm curious"  
Cub nodded as if in understanding.  
"15" and with that he fell asleep. 


	11. Chapter 11 final chapter

11  
The next morning Alex woke up feeling groggy. His mind felt like it had taken a beating but he felt strangely released. He realised that if was the first time he had slept peacefully. That must mean-  
Alex swore.  
The rest of k-unit turned to look at him.  
"What's wrong?" Snake asked. He was still getting over the fact that cub was 15z 15?! What the hell was he doing in SAS.

Alex glared at snake.  
"You forced me to take the medicine"  
His voice was accusatory and held malice.  
"Yes" for some reason, snake was fearing for his life.  
"Even after I told you not to"  
"Yes"  
"Cheer up cub" eagle interrupted. "It looks like you had a really good sleep"

Alex turned to glare at eagle and he flinched.  
"What is wrong with you taking your pills?"  
Wolf asked subtly . Of course wolf knew but he didn't want cub to know that they knew.  
"Maybe I should ask you that seeing as I hardly remember any of last night."  
The whole of k-unit flinched and it did not go past Alex.  
But Alex didn't wasn't angry any more, he just wanted to know if he let anything slip. If he did, then he probably just put k-units life at risk. If he told them his name, or about any of his missions then he was screwed.  
"What did I say?" He decided to be blunt about it. No point beating round the bush.  
"Nothing much" wolf said trying his best to act subtly, but with cub it felt as if he could see right through the you.  
"What did I say?" Alex asked again.  
"You just told us about how your father knew gregorovich and your age"  
"I WHAT?"

A knock on the door saved k-unit from answering.

Wolf went to answer it.  
"K-unit" a soldier addressed. "The sergeant would like to speak to you"  
You never keep the sergeant waiting, so k-unit quickly made their way to the sergeants office and wolf knocked on door.  
"Enter"  
They entered and Stood to attention. They didn't fail to notice a man in a grey suit standing next to the sergeant but they remained professional.  
"At ease soldiers"  
The soldiers relaxed.  
"I'm sure your wondering why you have been called to the office " the sergeant began.  
"This person over here is mr blunt" k-unit looked at him "and he is the head of military intelligence sector 6, also known as mi6"  
At this k-unit subconsciously shifted their attention to their youngest member who remained still stubbornly staring at the wall behind the sergeant.  
"Soldiers" mr blunt began "there is a situation which requires our attention and we have decided that your unit is the best unit for the job I-"  
"With all due respect sir" blunt was cut of very bluntly by cub and k-unit flinched at the coldness in his tone. No one ever interrupted a superior much less a 15 year old boy. Yes k-unit still hadn't gotten over that fact.  
"Cub" the sergeant barked "don't interrupt a superior"  
Cub snorted. Cub actually snorted.  
"No sergeant it's ok" blunt said "let the soldier speak"  
Refusing to turn his attention away from the wall, cub carried on " I apologise for interrupting sir" he didn't sound very apologetic " but I am new here and I don't think it would be best if I don't go with the unit as I am still inexperienced and wouldn't  
want to effect the mission in anyway. I think I should leave now so you can carry on discussing the mission without me"  
"On the contrary soldier" came the lifeless reply "this would be the best chance to prove yourself"  
"Forgive me for arguing but I could jeaprodise the teams safety so it would be best if I don't go"  
Cub turned to face blunt and only the sergeant could see Cubs face and he flinched. Cub and blunt seemed to have a silent conversation. The room remained in silence for a minute or so with two people communicating telepathically.  
The sergeant tried to break the silence  
"Mr blunt sir maybe cub is right, it would not do any good for him to come on the mission" his statement went unheard by the telepathic two but the other soldiers couldn't help but agree. Cub was 15 years old, it would do no one any good to send him on  
a mission.  
After more seconds of silence, a nerve began to pulse in Blunts neck. For the lifeless blunt, this sort of reaction was equivalent to a man having an anger tantrum. Cub, noticing this, allowed a small smile to play on his lips.  
More silence.  
Finally cub through his hands in the air in exasperation  
"If you can't find anything against me then I'm not going. You can't force me if you have nothing against me. There is no one left " he was too professionally to allow his voice to crack but he was so close. "I'm not going" he folded his arms to give  
of the impression of being the teenager he is which only seemed to infuriate blunt.  
"Soldier you have no choice, you must go"  
Alex smirked. This was getting fun. He heard rumours that he was the only person who could get blunt to show emotion. Seemed like even the head of mi6 is not immune to the stubbornness of a 15 year old teenage spy.  
"I believe I do have a choice."  
Cub them slumped into the chair by the sergeants desk.  
"Cub!" The sergeant barked "where is your respect for your superior"  
"I'm sorry sir, but there is no superior."  
"I will have you binned for this"  
"You can't bin me. Isn't that right Alan?"  
Blunt was so close to going over the edge. One more comment from rider and he would either have to ask Mrs Jones to come instead or he would do something very unprofessional.  
Instead of replying, blunt took out his phone "Mrs Jones , it's your turn"  
Blunt shut the phone and tuned to the other inhabitants of the room.  
"My deputy would me coming to speak here instead, as I have to attend some important business at the moment."  
With that blunt walked out of the room.  
Alex sighed and dragged a hand through his hair "well that went well"  
Before any of the others could reply, a knock was sounded on the door and Mrs Jones deputy head of mi6 entered the room.  
One look at the position of the inhabitants of the room and she deduced exactly what had happened.  
Wolf watched the Jones women walk over to cub and whisper something in his ear. He watched Cubs eyes go wide  
"You wouldn't " his voice was full of disbelief.  
"Alex sometimes you leave us with no choice"  
He physically flinched at the mention of his name "you can't do that. The official secrets act wouldn't let you."  
"Alex I think that we created the OSA so we would know what we will and will not be able to do"  
"Don't call me Alex"  
Her eyes shined with amusement "would you prefer it if I called you be your last name."  
Alex ignored her comment "But" Alex tried again. "What about the safety of k-unit." Their ears perked at the mention of their unit "If they found out who I was they would be in danger. Will you really put a whole unit of elite soldiers in danger  
because of a stupid teenager"  
"Alex you must understand that this is a very important situation and we are willing to go to any lengths. If you just agree then no ones safety will be threate-  
"Apart from my own"  
"Alex we need your hel-"  
"Find someone else"  
"You know we can't"  
"Yes you can. The world managed to survive perfectly well before Ian died, I hardly see the reason for you still needing my assistance"  
"Once you taste the best you can't go back to the average"  
Alex winced " so I'm your best huh? It's nice to know that. I would hate to see how you treat your worst agents. Actually I already know, seeing what blunt did to Ash."  
This time Mrs Jones winced "that was uncalled for"  
"Or really was it" Alex couldn't help himself, his temper was rising "because you coming to force me on another mission when I was supposed to be safe here is ok? You threatening me with the safety of my unit is ok? You making a unit vulnerable to scorpia  
interrogation is ok? I'm sorry Tulip but you need to rethink your decision and come back here when you have a proper deal. It's probably too much to hope that I would never have to see yours of blunts face again but I will do my best to make sure  
you never get a grip on me or anyone else again. You bought me in this chess game as a pawn but I have reached to the other side and turned into the most dangerous player in your game. I would choose your next moves wisely Mrs Jones because next time  
I won't miss and no glass screen can protect you. do you understand?"  
Mrs Jones gulped "I understand"  
"Good, because this game just got interesting" he put the hands on the arms of the chair showing that he had all the control in this room.  
Mrs Jones nodded then walked out.  
Alex let the door shut before he slumped into his seat, his anger dismissing.  
Realising the other inhabitants in the room he quickly got up and stood to attention infront of the sergeant . If the sergeant was surprised at the sudden change in cub then he did horribly at hiding it.  
"At ease soldier" he replied automatically not knowing what else to do.  
"Sir I apologised for my unruly behaviour just now and I hope this won't reflect badly on k-unit, but they were going to send us on a suicide mission and I figured that they could use their own agents."  
The sergeant couldn't help but stare at this-this-he didn't know what cub was but whatever it was it was strange.  
Seeing the need to fill the silence, Alex spoke again. "Sir I think it would be best if we left now before we missed breakfast"  
The sergeant nodded absent mindedly. "Dismissed"  
k-unit made their way to the lunch hall in a thought filled silence before snake stopped in his tracks.  
"No way. No god damed way"  
He turned to cub  
"No way. It can't be. Impossible."  
"Snake are you ok?" Cub asked.  
Snake was not ok. Snake was far from ok. He had been thinking of cub all morning and the pieces just fell into place.  
Cubs parents dead.  
Cubs entanglement with scorpia.  
Cubs entanglement with mi6.  
Cub in the space module.  
Cubs scars.  
Cubs unnatural talent.  
Cub being the best in mi6.  
Cub leaving the lecture hall when about scorpia and John rider.  
John rider being the only mi6 agent who went undercover in scorpia.  
John rider having a son and wife.  
Cubs refusal to say his last name.  
Cubs first name is Alex.  
"No way" snake whispered.  
Alex knew it. He knew it from the shock and the disbelief and the refusal to understand in snakes eyes. He knew that he hadn't been careful enough with hiding his tracks but most of them were not revealed because of him.  
He did the only thing he could think of. He started clapping slowly.  
"Well done snake. Your the first to figure it out." His tone was not angry but sinister.  
"It's impossible"  
"Apparently not. I'm here aren't I"  
"But your fifteen"  
"Yes I am"  
"You can't be"  
"Can't be what?"  
"You can't be anything. You can't be fifteen you can't be him-"  
"Snake what the hell is going on" wolf interrupted.  
Snake tuned to wolf his eyes slightly mad  
"He is-he is-"  
"What's wrong with you? Just spit it out"  
Alex sighed. Looks like his time was nigh.  
He walked over to wolf and extended his hand.  
"Let me introduce my self. mi6's top spy at your service. 15 years old. 1 year of service . 11 missions. Known as the annihilator in the criminal world. Son of the late John Rider." He then let the bomb drop. "The name is Rider. Alex Rider."

He then walked away.

Alex knew he had extended his stay at Breacon beacons. He couldnt stay here anymore after he had revealed himself. It was now a matter of when scorpia would come for them.  
That was why he called Mrs Jones and he told her that he accepted his mission but asked to undertake it alone. He asked for 3 OSA for k-unit, and requested they find another place for him to go live. He had extended his stay at the SAS camp and any more  
time here would put the whole camp in danger.

With that Alex left the SAS camp and went on his next mission to save the world leaving behind many many many unanswered questions and no one to answer them. But then again, he was Alex Rider. The annihilator. The spy. The teenager. The legend among the  
SAS. The legend among the intelligence agencies.  
Some questions were best left unanswered.  
Fin.

* * *

 **I know this is such an abrupt end but I am horrible with writing endings.**

 **Now that I think about it I might post a sequel maybe containing everything that I missed out. Who knows?**


End file.
